UK - The British government's Pension Service body is offering a free service to assist people to trace various pension benefits they might have accrued at previous places of employment.

New research revealed that half of UK adults do not know how much money they have built up in pension schemes.

One in six people has no details of where their money is saved.

The major reason is many people in the UK change jobs frequently and lose track of their pension arrangements.

One in five UK adults change jobs five or more times by the age of 34, the national survey found.

Some 15% of those surveyed said the reason for losing track of a pension was because they believed it was not worth much. But according to the government, people "could be losing out on pension entitlements worth thousands of pounds".

From today people can call or access the Pension Service online and by providing the name and address of previous employers find out whether there are any outstanding pension benefits they can claim.

The Pension Service, which is part of the department for work and pension, has access to a database of over 200,000 occupational and personal pension schemes.

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