Cost of living

Take a look at the options on your policies

If you have one of our pension or life policies, you may have options that give you flexibility.

You may have options like:

• premium holidays so you can take a break from paying into your policy
• deferred payments, so you can delay the payments you make
• or cashing in some or all of the money in your policy, also known as the cash in value.

Where can you find out about your options?

If you have any questions about the options you have please get in touch with us.

Do you have money in accounts you’ve lost track of?

There’s an estimated £568 million lying unclaimed in lost bank accounts in the UK. Accounts go missing because people change their address or name and forget to let the organisation know so they have no way of contacting the customer.

My Lost Account was set up by the British Bankers’ Association, the Building Societies Association and National Savings and Investments (NS&I). The website aims to help you find lost accounts with any UK bank, building society or NS&I, as well as with some overseas banks with branches in the UK.

A lost account is one that’s been marked as inactive by a bank or building society. This happens when there’s been no account activity for at least three years or your bank or building society haven’t managed to contact you when you changed address.

You can use the website if you’re not sure which bank or building society your account is with or even if you’re not sure if an account exists at all. You can also check online for unclaimed Premium Bond prizes.

Money in a lost account is always yours by law, even if you wait many years to claim it. People usually use My Lost Account to trace their own account but Executors of wills can also use it. The search can take up to three months to complete. If a lost account is found, you’ll need to prove who you are and that you have a legal right to the money. When your account is reopened you can reclaim the money and get any interest you’re due if it was in an interest-bearing account.

MoneyHelper has information on tracking down lost trusts and unclaimed estates when people haven’t left a will.

Tracking down a lost personal or workplace pension

It’s important you keep an accurate list of the pensions you have. It’s not always easy to keep track of a pension when you’ve been in more than one scheme or changed employers a number of times. Added to this, pension schemes can close, merge or be renamed. So even if you remember the name of your scheme, it could now be called something else.

If you can’t find the contact details of your old employer, or you don’t know the provider of a personal pension you can contact the free government service called the Pension Tracing Service.

They’ll search a database of more than 200,000 workplace and personal pension schemes to try to find the contact details you need. You can phone the Pension Tracing Service on 0800 731 0193 or use their online directory for contact details on GOV.UK

Plan ahead and budget

It’s important to have an accurate picture of your income and outgoings and any additional expenses you might have over the next few months. Consider cancelling or renegotiating contracts to cut out any unnecessary spending. MoneyHelper has a useful budget planner tool that can help you capture everything you need to.

Review your existing credit cards or loans

If you’re paying a high rate of interest on credit card repayments then it pays to check for balance transfer offers that could save you money. And if you’re struggling to make repayments on a mortgage or other loans, talk to your provider to find out what they can do to help until you’re in a better financial position. You may be able to extend the terms of your loan, adjust repayment amounts or take a payment holiday.

Check if you can get government support

If you’re on a low income, not working or unable to work, you may be able to claim universal credit. You can find out about other government support that’s available by using an independent benefits calculator.