Expats lose £850m worth of pensions

Roughly 250,000 British expat pensioners have lost out on pensions benefits worth in the region of £850m due to the fact that UK pension scheme trustees have lost trace of them since they emigrated.

The estimate arrives after data gathered by FindMyLostPension.com showed that expats in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Australia, South Africa, the Middle East and other regions across the world have pension pots that remain unclaimed.

The average pensioner is owed anything between £2,000 and £30,000 per year, while tax-free sums worth between £500 and £40,000 have also remained unclaimed.

FindMyPension.com co-founder Paul Lalwan explained that the issue was long-standing, noting that it was extremely tough and pricey for pension schemes to locate expats and their surviving partners who were due a pension using the standard British-based tracing methods.

But, he revealed that trustees had now begun using the internet in a bid to ensure expats could receive their unclaimed pensions. He explained that British pensions legislation that was brought into force in April allowed expats above the age of 55 to claim tax-free lump-sums from their pension pots.
expat pensioners,

There are a number of ways to trace lost pensions, which people are advised to do without a charge rather than paying for it, in order to recover owed funds. Both the Government’s Pension Tracing Service and FindMyLostPension.com are free, with the former employing 49 staff to deal with such issues.

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