More than a quarter (28 per cent) of British adults believe they have a lost or dormant pension pot, according to research by Gretel.

The online service, which helps financial service companies resolve legacy data issues, estimated that 1.6 million people, with an average pension value of £23,125, are affected, totalling £37bn in lost or dormant pots.

Over four in 10 (42 per cent) people aged between 18 and 34 believed they had a lost or dormant pension, compared to 32 per cent of 35 to 54-year olds and 14 per cent of those aged over 55.

Adults in London were the most likely to believe they had a lost or dormant pot, with 42 per cent of respondents thinking they had pensions that were unaccounted for.

Gretel noted that changing jobs is a common way for savers to become disconnected from their company pension scheme, with its research finding than 26 per cent of people had changed jobs between four and seven times in their adult life and 8 per cent more than eight times.

“Unfortunately it’s all too easy to become disconnected from a pension scheme,” said Gretel chief executive, Duncan Stevens.

“We estimate that there are over 1.6 million pension pots sat dormant with an average value of £23,125 – a sum that could have a huge financial impact on the retirement of your average customer.”

Recent analysis by PensionBee estimated that the number of dormant pension pots in the UK is set to rise by 32 per cent and exceed 20 million in 2020.

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