Speaking on the Martin Lewis Money Show Live, the personal finance expert said people frequently don’t realise they have a missing pension with significant money in it
07:57, 07 May 2026Updated 07:58, 07 May 2026
Martin Lewis gave crucial pension advice on his show this week(Image: ITV)
Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning to anyone who has changed address or employer – revealing the typical unclaimed amount stands at £10,000. During this week’s Martin Lewis Money Show Live, the financial expert highlighted how individuals often remain unaware they possess a ‘lost’ pension pot containing substantial sums.
He revealed that one viewer who acted on his guidance to investigate discovered £45,000 ‘sitting there’, while across the UK an estimated £30 billion worth of pensions remain untraced. He said: “There’s over 30 billion pounds. 30,000 million pounds of pensions are thought to be lost. An average of just under£10,000 each.”
Outlining why this occurs, Mr Lewis said: “The reason people lose track, you didn’t update your contact details. You might have changed house. You might have changed name if you got married, for example. You also might have changed jobs and forgotten it. It’s so common or your pension provider might have merged or been renamed.”
Crucially, individuals can search for missing pensions at no cost whatsoever. He said: “So, how do you find your lost pension for free? Well, if you get it, if you got your paperwork, dig out your old paperwork and try contacting your old employers first. If you don’t have any luck, go on to the pension tracing service on gov.uk.
“It contains 200,000 pension schemes. Really good, especially if you look at your old pension scheme. It doesn’t exist anymore. Who’s taken on its assets? Where’s it gone? They’ll be able to find that for you. You get the details. You contact the pension firm to get reconnected. You will of course need ID.
“If you still don’t have any luck or you can’t remember your details, then there is gretle.co.uk. It will go onto your credit files, do a soft search, so that means it doesn’t affect your credit score in common parliament. And will match your old address to any lost assets like bank account, shares, and pensions. It’s free to use. It’s funded by financial firms. Basically, most big financial firms are given a duty to try and reconnect people with their lost assets.”
“So, instead of doing it themselves, they subcontract a Gretle to do it for them, which is why it’s free. Once you’re signed up, it will recheck every 14 days. So, especially those of you in your 40s, 50s, 60s who’ve worked at lots of different firms, this is massively worth doing. You might have a £45,000 pension out there. In fact, had one guy’s had over £100,000 of pension he found. It is worth a check.”
To use the government’s pension checking service click here. To visit Gretle click here.
Martin Lewis also shared a ‘rule of thumb’ he maintains should assist people in achieving a ‘better retirement’. The MoneySavingExpert founder presented it during the latest edition of ITV’s The Martin Lewis Money Show, which aired this week.
The finance guru delivered a ‘Pensions Special’ episode, which he described as his “most important show” of the year. During the programme, he covered private and workplace pensions, pension ‘super powers’, inheritance tax and methods to locate lost pensions.
He also addressed questions submitted by viewers. Martin Lewis’ co-host, Jeanette Kwakye MBE, read out a question from a viewer named Daryl, who asked about how much he should be contributing to his pension, reports the Express.
She said: “Daryl’s asking, is there a good rule of thumb to pay into pensions, whilst I want to put more into my pension, I don’t want it to impact my quality of life in the here and now. Is doing 15% contributions to someone in my mid-thirties enough?”
Martin Lewis replied: “Wow, I think you’re doing really well. I mean, way more than most people. Let me give you the rule of thumb that scares the pants off everybody.”
He went on to reveal the ‘rule of thumb’ for a ‘better retirement’. It involves taking your age when you commence your pension and halving it. That number represents the percentage of your salary you should strive to set aside for the rest of your working life (for example, if you start at 20, save 10%; if you start at 40, save 20%). He outlined: “Take the age when you start putting into your pension. So in your case, we’ll say 30. Half it, that’s 15. That’s how much of your income you want going in the rest of your life for a decent retirement”.
Martin Lewis recognised that few individuals actually reach this target in practice, but stressed that starting sooner results in better retirement outcomes. “Very few people ever get there,” he said.