It's staggering to realise that there are over one million people in the UK who have unclaimed pension benefits, with the total value of these benefits estimated to be worth over £4 billion!

In common with many other pension schemes, the Plumbing Industry Pension Scheme has a number of members with whom they have lost contact. These are generally members who are no longer contributing to the Scheme and have moved house without notifying the Scheme of their new address.

Each year, when the Scheme issues certificates to its members, it receives a number returned by the Post Office marked 'Gone Away'.

The Plumbing Industry Pension Scheme believes that it is important to keep all members notified about their pension entitlement - as well as being able to pay the benefits to them at the due date. Regular notification through annual pension credit certificates enables members to be kept in touch about the amount of pension they are entitled to, which means that they are able to plan for their financial future.

In addition to a range of other methods used by the Scheme to trace 'lost' members, Plumbing Pensions recently joined a service called Find My Lost Pension. (www.findmylostpension.com). This service enables individuals to check whether any pension benefits are being held on their behalf by any of the schemes participating in the service just by inserting their National Insurance number onto the website.

Encouragingly, within 24 hours of joining this service, Plumbing Pensions had already received information about 14 members for whom the Scheme did not hold a current address.

In addition to urging plumbers to visit the Find My Lost Pension website, Plumbing Pensions encourages members who don't currently receive an annual update to get in touch so that the Scheme can obtain the current contact information. The team can be contacted on 08457 656565.