Digital tools help UK savers unlock £675m

By Vriti Gothi

The UK’s pension landscape continues to grapple with the challenge of lost or forgotten retirement savings, with an estimated £31.1 billion tied up in unclaimed pension pots, according to the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI). In this context, pension-tracing technology is increasingly being recognised as a critical tool for improving financial inclusion and retirement preparedness.

Pension-finding platform Raindrop reported that it recovered over £675 million in lost pension pots for UK savers during 2025, a 169% increase from the £251 million recovered in 2024. The solution traced more than 67,000 lost pots last year, bringing its total recovered savings since launch to over £1 billion from 103,000 pensions.

Raindrop works in partnership with major financial providers, including Aegon, AJ Bell, and Monzo, to facilitate the process of pension tracing. The platform leverages technology to streamline what has traditionally been a time-consuming and complex process for savers attempting to locate their lost retirement funds.

Vivan Shridharani, Co-Founder & CCO at Raindrop, said, “For too long, tracing lost pensions has been a time-consuming and often fruitless process for savers. Over the last year, our simple pension-finding technology has reunited over £675 million in lost pots with tens of thousands of savers. With the support of our clients, we have seen a huge jump in growth in the value and number of recovered pension pots in 2025, breaking the £1 billion barrier. However, given that over £31 billion in retirement savings remains unclaimed, this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The scale of unclaimed pensions underscores both a structural and behavioural challenge in the UK retirement ecosystem. According to the PPI, there are nearly 3.3 million lost pots in the country, with an average value of £9,500, highlighting the significant financial impact on individual savers over the long term.

Raindrop plans to expand its reach in 2026, collaborating with additional financial institutions to provide its pension-finding technology to a broader audience. Shridharani emphasized the strategic intent behind this expansion:

The rapid growth of digital pension-tracing solutions such as Raindrop reflects a broader FinTech trend: leveraging technology to solve long-standing inefficiencies in the retirement savings sector. By automating the identification and recovery of lost pensions, these platforms not only improve financial literacy and inclusion but also directly increase the retirement security of millions of savers.

As the UK faces an aging population and a complex, fragmented pensions landscape, the adoption of technology-driven solutions is likely to become a core component of national retirement strategy, bridging gaps that traditional manual processes have struggled to address.