Scottish Widows has partnered with The Pension Lab to launch a new tool to track down lost or unclaimed pension pots.

The new service will help members find pots from former employers and consolidate separate pensions if they choose to do so.

It has been launched through Scottish Widows’ app, which has reached one million registrations and driven over £1.2bn in in-app pot consolidations.

There are an estimated 3.3 million lost pension pots in the UK worth a combined total of £31.1bn, according to research from the Pensions Policy Institute.

Starting with a user's national insurance number, the pension tracing tool will ask for known data, such as previous employers, pension providers, and the years the pension was active.

Users will then need to digitally sign a letter of authority to allow The Pension Lab to contact providers in their behalf.

“Too many people are going into later life without a clear picture of what they have saved, simply because their pensions are scattered across different jobs and providers,” said Scottish Widows CEO, Chira Barua.

“With millions of pots sitting unclaimed across the UK, helping people reconnect with their savings is an important first step in improving retirement outcomes.

“We’ve made pension tracing simple and accessible, to make bringing pensions together in one place as easy as possible so that people can properly understand their future finances and take control of them.

“Reaching one million app users is a clear signal that customers want straightforward, digital ways to manage their money, and we’re continuing to invest in digital and AI tools that remove friction and make pensions easier to engage with.”

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