Director of Communications for Directgov, Tiffany St James, said: “Saving for the future is crucial but our research suggests many UK adults are losing touch with their pensions and don’t know how much money they have saved.”

The department found that more than half of adults in the UK are unaware how much money has accrued in their pension schemes. Even more surprisingly, although one in three Brits have two or more pensions, one in six people have no details of where their money is saved.

The survey found that one of the main reasons people are losing track of their pensions is that people are changing jobs more frequently; one in five adults reportedly changed jobs five or more times by the time they were 34 years old.

However, 15 per cent of respondents said they had lost track of a pension because they did not believe it was worth much, a supposition that often turns out to be incorrect.

The government has launched a free pension tracing service at Directgov to help people track down lost pensions.

Find out more about pensions and pension transfer