300 million euros in uncollected funds await 'untraceable' pensioners

Hundreds of millions of euros in pension funds still have not been paid out, because some pensioners cannot be found, AD reports. The industry pension fund for the government and education, ABP, is missing the addresses of 19,000 people.

Some people have moved abroad, making them difficult to trace. Others may not know they are entitled to benefits, so they have not applied. This could happen, for example, if someone worked as a student assistant during university –– which falls under the education umbrella –– and built up funds that way.

There is an average of 16,000 euros per person waiting to be collected, according to AD. This is a total of 300 million euros.

ABP employees are attempting to trace these difficult-to-find pensioners. An agency outside the ABP has found 2,000 people before, who were "very happy" to collect their money, a spokesperson for the ABP said.

"Employees have saved up for this. They are simply entitled to it," the spokesperson said, according to AD.