Some 190,000 people, a record number, engaged with forgotten retirement savings following this year’s National Pension Tracing Day on 26 October.

The figures are based on new analysis from employee benefits consultancy Secondsight.

It said this year’s campaign reached more than 190,000 people across social platforms – more than twice last year’s audience – leading to almost 2,000 employees beginning the process of tracing potentially overlooked pensions.

Over the course of the campaign, the National Pension Tracing Day website recorded 18,021 sessions, representing a 131% increase from last year.

Significantly 99% of the website’s visitors were new to the page, and nearly 2,000 went on to start tracing a lost pension via the campaign’s step-by-step guide.

The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) estimates there are 3.3m lost pension pots in the UK, worth a combined £31.1bn. The average value of a lost pot now stands at £9,470, rising to £13,620 among those aged 55 to 74.

Darren Laverty of Secondsight said: “This year’s surge in engagement shows that when people are given the right moment and the right prompt, they’re willing to take action on money they might have forgotten about.

“The response in the fifth year of this campaign tells us people are ready to prioritise their pension when it’s made simple and timely to do so.”

The campaign was launched in 2020 to give people a simple reminder, held on the date when the clocks go back, to reconnect with savings they may have overlooked.

The campaign is supported by nine major partners: Aviva, Aegon, Legal & General Investment Management, Smart Pension, Scottish Widows, Royal London, Standard Life, Hargreaves Lansdown and The People’s Pension.

Secondsight is the dedicated employee benefits division of Foster Denovo Limited.