That was according to a new study carried out by Aegon.

Some 21% of the 1,004 adults surveyed had lost track, suggesting, researchers said, that over six million people may have misplaced some of their retirement savings if the result was reflected in the broader population.

With a majority of people holding multiple pensions, as many as two fifths (39%) did not know the value of their pensions, the report stated.

Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon said: “Today people have diverse careers often involving multiple jobs with different companies. The introduction of auto-enrolment has also led to more than seven million people saving into a pension and a big increase in total number of pension savers.

“As a result, a majority of people now have more than one pension but it’s a concern to find that 21% of these people have lost track of some of their savings.”

One option to prevent losing track of different pension pots is to combine them with one pension provider and Aegon’s research found 67% of people would be interested in consolidation. However, while 30% thought there were benefits to doing so, 43% said they would need further information on the benefits.

Ms Smith said the launch of a pension dashboard in 2019 “should simplify the process of finding lost pensions”.