Dear LPG,

I recently found myself with three of my friends on a video conferencing call.  I have to say that even though getting out and about is becoming more of a reality now I think that we are all a little lazier and, now that I have learned the secret of seeing my friends online, we have all decided to practice regularly so that we don’t forget how to do it.  

…but that is not what I really want to talk about.

 We all started reminiscing about all the jobs we have had over the years; the highlights and the ‘lowlights’. The interesting thing is that was that while two of us spent most of our working lives working for one company, the other two had done quite a few things over the years. Between us we boasted some long-lived, and quite a few short-lived careers during our collective working lifetimes, some of which we had all but forgotten the details of until we reminisced about the funny things that happened while we worked.

The conversation got me thinking that the average person changes jobs about 12 times during their working life and I have to say that, when I sat and made a list, I found myself to be quite average.  I then read another statistic which interested me.  I found an online newspaper article which explains that, when all the bits are added up it appears that UK pensioners, both potential and real, have forgotten to claim quite a chunk of their occupational pensions and this year there is a cash of millions, or even billions (depending on which report you read), waiting to be remembered and claimed.

I found that a bit of an eye-opener, but I also found a piece of information about a government department that might be able to help. The pension tracing service may be worth contacting, if you are not receiving a pension from a company that you worked for more than two years, and which perhaps went into liquidation since you left them. They will be able to check to see what happened to their pension fund so that you can check to see if you are missing out on a pension that you should be entitled to.  It might just be worth making a list of all the jobs you have had, working out exactly how long you worked there and finding that there might just be a job that you never claimed for. 

I have always thought myself reasonably worldly wise but this bit of information really opened my eyes a little and I hope that it might just open a few windows of missed opportunity for a few of my fellow LPG readers.

KE, New Cross

LPG shares the statistics that have opened KE’s eyes, some information about the Pension Tracing Service, and for those who would rather use the telephone, their contact telephone number is 0800 731 0193.-

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