Introduction

A deferred pension scheme is a type of pension plan where a member leaves their employment before retirement age but still accumulates pension benefits. In the UK, it is estimated that there are thousands of missing pension members in deferred pension schemes, which can be a significant problem for both the members and the pension schemes themselves.

The problem of missing pension members occurs when a member leaves their employment and fails to keep their pension scheme informed of their current address. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including a change in address or simply forgetting to update their contact details. When a pension scheme cannot locate a member, they are considered missing, and their pension benefits are left unclaimed.

This can have serious consequences for missing pension members. Firstly, they may miss out on their pension benefits, which can be a significant source of income in retirement. Secondly, they may not receive important updates from their pension scheme, such as changes to the scheme’s rules or investment strategy. Finally, missing pension members may be vulnerable to pension scams, where fraudsters target individuals with the promise of early access to their pension benefits.

The problem of missing pension members also affects pension schemes themselves. Unclaimed pension benefits can lead to increased administration costs and reduced investment returns. Pension schemes may also be required to hold unclaimed benefits in reserve, which can limit their ability to invest and generate returns for their members.

To address the problem of missing pension members, pension schemes can take several steps. Firstly, they can use tracing agents to locate missing members. Tracing agents use a variety of techniques, including electoral roll data and credit reference agency data, to locate missing members and reunite them with their pension benefits.

Secondly, pension schemes can encourage their members to keep their contact details up to date. This can be achieved through regular communication, such as newsletters and email updates, as well as providing online portals for members to update their contact details.

Finally, pension schemes can work with the UK government and regulatory bodies to develop a central database of pension scheme members. This would make it easier for pension schemes to locate missing members and for members to keep their contact details up to date.

In conclusion, the problem of missing pension members in deferred pension schemes is a significant issue in the UK. Pension schemes can take several steps to address this problem, including using tracing agents, encouraging members to keep their contact details up to date, and working with the UK government and regulatory bodies to develop a central database of pension scheme members. By taking these steps, pension schemes can ensure that their members receive the pension benefits they are entitled to and reduce the impact of unclaimed benefits on their own administration and investment costs.

 

 

Tracing a deferred pension member

Do you need to know about deferred pension member tracing? Tracing pension members in the UK is an important area for pension administrators to look after. It is important to note that best practice dictates that a current address for pension members is sought on a regular basis to inform pension members. Findukpeople.com has acted for many pension administrators in the UK to reconnect pensioner members with them, with our advanced pension tracing datasets we normally can reconnect a pension administrator in just 24 hours with a pensioner’s current address.

In recent surveys, it has been found that people are most likely to forget to inform a pension administrator when moving home and with over 11% of the UK population moving home in any one year, the problem is an ever-growing one. This does not include the other circumstances where data can become out of date and incorrect such as death, marriage, emigration, and divorce.

A pension administrator also has a duty to its pensioners to make sure data is regularly checked to make sure letters and updates are being sent to the correct and current address to minimize the risk of account takeover by fraudsters, of course, is reason enough to make sure there is a policy of tracing and verifying address data after a set period of time.

Inevitably certain pension members will be harder to locate and will require manual research. Our team of expert tracers has undergone extensive training for demanding and intricate pension tracing. We will locate the whereabouts of lost members both in the UK and overseas and will only report positively if we are confident the correct individual has been traced.

 

Important

Recommended measures to trace pension members – guidance from the pensions regulator

Poor record-keeping may lead to significant additional costs in a number of areas such as administration, error correction, claims from members, buy-outs, wind-ups, and, potentially, may necessitate the making of more conservative actuarial assumptions. Where a scheme’s poor record-keeping becomes known, it can cause reputational damage.

 

How we can help

Find UK People® provides a rapid, efficient, and compliant means to trace pension members in the UK or abroad. We will track the current address of any pension member by using our advanced tracing technology to trace absentee pension members.

Find UK People® will yield high success rates when pension member tracing and our current average pension member tracing success rate is 96%

All of our pension member tracing services are offered on a no trace no fee basis, just place your initial order with us and we will investigate.

 

We offer the following service for deferred pension member tracing

Tracing the current address of pension members in just 24 hours. We will provide you with the current address of the pension member which will have been verified and traced via two separate information sources by our expert pension member tracing agents and is guaranteed to be a current address for the pension member on the date the trace report is generated.

We underwrite this trace agent information for 30 days, so in the event, you feel the information is incorrect we will recheck the case for you free of any charge for 60 days.

We are pension member tracing agent experts and provide an effective low-cost pension member tracing solution,