More than £2bn in lost wealth was handed back to savers in the first six months of the year, as firms including JP Morgan and Standard Life moved to reconnect Britons with money they had lost track of.

The initiative, known as “Billions 4 Millions”, has returned £2.5bn in lost and unclaimed financial assets to consumers, spanning pensions, investments, savings and financial protection.

Customers were reconnected with an average of £31,647 each, while the single largest recovery involved a protection policy worth more than £3.2m.

The scheme was launched in January by lost asset finder Gretel, which initially aimed to return £1bn to UK consumers by the end of 2026. That target has now been raised to £5bn.

Duncan Stevens, founder of Gretel, said: “Lost assets are often thought of as small forgotten balances hardly worth worrying about, but these can be pensions, savings and insurance worth genuinely meaningful sums.”

Aviva and Foresters Financial are among the other firms taking part.

Losing track

Gretel estimates that roughly £89bn is sitting in forgotten or unclaimed accounts. Customers typically lose track of their finances after moving house, changing their name or misplacing paperwork.

Accounts are declared dormant when banks fail to trace holders at their last known address, or after prolonged periods of inactivity. Britain already operates a Dormant Assets Scheme — widened by the Dormant Assets Act 2022 to cover pensions, insurance and investments — under which participating firms can release unclaimed balances for good causes while customers keep the right to reclaim their money in full.

Pensions account for roughly £31.1bn of unclaimed UK wealth, according to the Pensions Policy Institute. Workers tend to lose track of pots when switching jobs or when their provider closes down, and the number of stray pots has grown since automatic enrolment into workplace pensions began in 2012, with savers typically building a separate pot each time they change employer. The government’s long-delayed pensions dashboards programme, by contrast, is intended to let people view all of their retirement savings in one place online once it launches.

Pensions accounted for 80 per cent of wealth returned, but just 38 per cent of overall value. Insurance and protection, by comparison, made up 12 per cent of reconnections yet roughly 60 per cent of value, with the average returned value reaching £157,754.

Those born between 2002 and 2011 were also able to recover child trust funds, which accounted for eight per cent of returns, giving adults access to funds for savings or investments. The state-backed accounts, which opened with government vouchers for children born between September 2002 and January 2011, began maturing as holders turned 18 from September 2020.

Cost of living crisis

The milestone comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham doubles down on tackling the cost of living crisis, raising questions about the role the financial services industry plays.

“At a time when helping people with the cost of living is the Government’s number one priority, there is an obvious opportunity here and it’s one that doesn’t require a new benefit or additional taxpayer funding,” said Stevens.

“If a relatively small group of firms can reconnect people with £2.5 billion in six months, imagine what could be achieved with much broader industry participation.”

Andy Briggs, chief executive of Standard Life, also noted that tracking down lost pension funds can help tackle the looming retirement crisis and build “greater financial security”.

Britons are opting to save less into their pensions in order to afford more pressing needs such as rent, leaving them without the level of funds needed to secure a comfortable retirement.

Briggs said: “For many people, a pension is one of their most valuable financial assets, yet it’s easy to lose track of savings after changing jobs several times throughout a career… reconnecting individuals with pension savings they’ve forgotten about is a practical step that can improve retirement outcomes.”