Reports and Briefing Notes

Published on Monday 12 October 2026, the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) launched Lost Pensions 2026: The Scale of the Challenge, sponsored by the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS).

The 2026 survey estimates that there are around 3 million lost pension pots in the UK, containing approximately £18.7 billion in pension assets. The survey provides the strongest market coverage of the PPI’s Lost Pensions research to date, covering around 75% of the workplace Defined Contribution (DC) market by number of pots. 

For the first time, the research also includes exploratory evidence on Defined Benefit (DB) pensions. While the available data are not sufficient to produce a market-wide estimate, the findings indicate that lost DB entitlements exist across different types of schemes and highlight the need for better data to understand their scale and value. 

Important note on the 2026 findings: The 2026 estimates are not directly comparable with previous PPI Lost Pensions Survey estimates. The survey has broader market coverage, a different mix of participating providers and a revised methodology for scaling the results to the wider market. In particular, the number of lost pots is scaled using pot-count coverage, while the value of lost pensions is scaled using asset-value coverage. The 2026 results should therefore be considered an updated baseline, rather than evidence of a reduction in lost pensions compared with previous years.