The nationwide study shows 17 per cent of employees have built up three or more pension funds as they have moved jobs during their working career and that rises to 27 per cent of those aged 45 to 54. Men are more likely to have multiple pension schemes than women – 20 per cent of male employees have three or more schemes compared with 13 per cent of women.
The research highlighted the growing number of workers building up multiple funds which is making it more difficult to keep track of total retirement savings. Just 11 per cent of employees are confident they can accurately estimate the value of all their retirement savings and investments including their home.
Around 39 per cent of employees believe they can roughly estimate the value of their total retirement fund but half admit they do not know how much they have invested.
Portus Consulting Commercial Director Steve Watson says: “Keeping track of retirement savings and investments is a challenge for most people but particularly difficult for employees with multiple funds.
“It is relatively encouraging that around half of all employees can accurately or at best roughly estimate how much they have saved or invested, but it is clear too many employees are in the dark about their retirement funds.
“There can be advantages in transferring pensions into one in terms of lower fees and better control, but in order to be able to make that judgement people need to be fully informed about how much they have.”
The research shows around 7 per cent of employees admit to having no pension funds at all rising to 19 per cent among those aged 18 to 24 and worryingly to 10 per cent among those aged 55 to 64.
