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More than £15bn lies forgotten in pensions and savings in the UK, thanks to Britons forgetting their bank details

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Forgotten passwords and lost details have cost Britons more than £15bn in unclaimed bonds, pensions, insurance policies and lost lottery tickets.

Figures from Beagle Street life insurance provider show that as of the end of September, an estimated £5bn was sitting in dormant bank accounts, along with £3bn-worth of pensions that have not been collected, and £3bn unclaimed in national savings and investment accounts.

Thanks to recent changes to the law, if savings in bank accounts aren't claimed with 15 years of lying idle, the funds will be collected by the government, its first collection is predicted to be between £60m-£100m.

Beagle Street's analysis suggests that the main reason people don't claim on policies or collect funds is that they’ve lost their account details.

Around £1bn is lost through forgotten life insurance policies, £300m from lost lottery tickets and an estimated £50m in unclaimed premium bonds.

In the last six months, £8.5m of lottery winnings went unclaimed, including one jackpot winner in Barking who'll be kicking themselves for not cashing in on their winning ticket, worth £4.6m.

According to the figures there are over 1.1m unwanted premium bonds amounting to £50m, with the largest unclaimed prize estimated to be £25,000, which puts loose change lost down the back of the sofa in perspective.

Matthew Gledhill, managing director of BeagleStreet.com said:

There is simply too much money sitting unclaimed and far too many people missing out on money that is rightfully theirs. Clearly people do not know they have been financially protected or have forgotten their policy even exists.