Old workplace pensions are the single biggest pile on this list. In the UK there are 3.3 million lost pots worth £31.1bn, averaging £13,620 for people aged 55 to 75, according to the Pensions Policy Institute. Australia's ATO reports a similar picture for unclaimed super, and the US launched a federal Retirement Savings Lost and Found in late 2024.
What Claude does: the hard part is remembering employers from a decade ago. Give it your CV or LinkedIn history and it reconstructs the timeline, names the likely scheme provider per job, and drafts the tracing request each provider wants, since they all ask for different identifying details.
Here is my work history: [paste your CV, LinkedIn, or just list
employers and rough dates].
Build me a pension tracing plan.
For each job, give me:
- The employer's full legal name, not the trading name, because
that is what the register will be under.
- Whether auto-enrolment would have applied in that country in
those years.
- The likely scheme provider, if it is knowable.
- What that provider will ask me for to trace an old pot.
Then draft one tracing letter per employer, leaving clear
[BRACKETS] for the details only I can fill in.
Finally: list the FREE official tracing service for my country
and tell me to start there.Pensions Policy Institute, Lost Pensions 2024
Every developed country has a register of bank accounts, shares, dividends and insurance payouts handed to the state when the owner went quiet. Searching is free. Australia's ASIC holds around $2.7bn, money becomes unclaimed after seven years, and there is no deadline to claim it. In the US, the Treasury alone holds $29.7bn in matured, unredeemed savings bonds.
Why one search finds nothing: the money is filed under a name or address you no longer use. That is the entire reason people conclude they have none.
I want to search unclaimed money registers properly.
My details: [current name, maiden name, any name changes,
middle names, and every address I can remember with rough
dates].
Generate:
1. Every plausible name variant I might be listed under.
Include initials only, misspellings a data-entry clerk would
make, hyphenated and unhyphenated versions, and my name
with and without a middle name.
2. Every address to search, oldest first.
3. Which registers apply to me, by country AND by state or
province, because they are often separate.
4. What evidence each register wants to release a claim.
Give me it as a checklist I can work through, and flag which
searches are free official ones.ASIC on unclaimed money · US unclaimed savings bonds
In the UK, £22.7bn a year in income-related benefits and social tariffs goes unclaimed, according to Policy in Practice. In the US, the IRS says roughly 1 in 5 eligible taxpayers miss the Earned Income Tax Credit, worth an average $2,916.
What Claude does: takes your real numbers and runs them against the published eligibility rules for each scheme, then tells you which rule decided the answer. That last part matters, because "borderline" is where most people give up.
Check what support I might be eligible for and never claimed.
My situation: [country, state or region, household size, ages,
gross and net income, rent or mortgage, hours worked, any
health conditions or caring responsibilities, student status].
For each scheme in my country and region:
- Say LIKELY QUALIFY, BORDERLINE, or DOES NOT QUALIFY.
- Name the SPECIFIC rule or threshold that decided it, and
quote the number.
- For borderline, tell me exactly which fact would tip it, so
I know what to check.
- List the evidence the application asks for.
Rank by annual value. Then draft my answers to the top three
applications, marking anything I need to verify with [CHECK].
Do not guess a threshold. If you are unsure of the current
figure, say so and tell me where the official number lives.Policy in Practice, Missing Out 2024 · IRS on the EITC
This has the most striking statistic I found anywhere. KFF analysed US marketplace insurers and found they denied 20% of in-network claims in 2023, about 86 million claims. Consumers appealed fewer than 1% of them. Of the appeals that were made, roughly 44% were overturned. The single most-cited denial reason was literally "Other", at 34%.
What Claude does: reads the denial letter and your actual policy document together, finds the clause that contradicts the stated reason, and drafts the appeal citing it. It also builds the deadline timeline, because appeal windows are short and are the most common reason a good case dies.
Attached: my denial letter, and my full policy document.
1. Quote the exact reason they gave, and the denial code.
2. Find every clause in MY policy that covers this service or
contradicts their reason. Quote it with the section number.
3. Tell me where their reasoning fails. Be specific: is the
exclusion they implied actually in my policy, or not?
4. Work out my appeal deadline from the letter's date, and
tell me the date I must act by.
5. Draft the internal appeal. Cite the policy section, address
the stated denial reason directly, and keep it factual.
6. Tell me what the next escalation is after an internal
appeal in my country, and its deadline.
If the policy genuinely does exclude this, say so plainly
rather than writing me an appeal that will fail.KFF, claims denials and appeals
Under EU and UK rules this is a cash entitlement of €250, €400 or €600 by distance, triggered at a three hour arrival delay, and it is separate from any refund. The European Court of Auditors found only 32% of disrupted passengers contacted the airline at all, and just 39% considered themselves aware of their rights.
Similar schemes exist in Brazil, Canada, Turkey, India and Israel. The United States has no federal cash-compensation mandate, so this one is genuinely regional.
Check whether I am owed flight compensation.
Flight details: [airline, flight number, date, route, scheduled
arrival, actual arrival, and exactly what the airline told me
the cause was].
Work out:
1. Which regulation applies, based on where the flight departed
from and the airline's home country.
2. The distance band, and therefore the amount.
3. Whether my ARRIVAL delay crosses the threshold. Departure
delay is not what counts.
4. Whether the airline's stated cause genuinely meets the
"extraordinary circumstances" defence. Crew rostering and
most technical faults do not. Say which way this one falls.
Then draft the claim letter, naming the regulation and article.
Tell me the airline's own claim page, and the national
enforcement body if they refuse or go quiet.
Note in the letter that I am claiming compensation, not a
refund or a voucher, because they are different things.Your Europe, air passenger rights
This is the one where you were told no, and the no was wrong. Your legal right to a repair, replacement or refund on a faulty product exists separately from the manufacturer's warranty, and usually outlasts it. In the EU the legal guarantee is a minimum of two years, and if a fault appears in the first year the seller has to prove it was not there at delivery, not you. Australia's consumer guarantees have no fixed expiry at all, running instead on what is reasonable for that product.
The European Commission is explicit that a commercial warranty "can never exclude or reduce your rights under the minimum 2-year guarantee".
A retailer has refused a repair or refund. Help me push back
under statute rather than under their warranty.
Details: [what I bought, from whom, when, what it cost, what
went wrong, when it went wrong, and exactly what they said].
1. Tell me which consumer law applies in my country, and what
the statutory guarantee period is.
2. Tell me whether the burden of proof is on me or the seller
at this point in time, and why that matters here.
3. Tell me whether the product should reasonably have lasted
this long, given what it cost.
4. Draft a letter TO THE SELLER, not the manufacturer, citing
the statute by name and the remedy I am entitled to.
5. Tell me the free ombudsman or regulator to escalate to, and
what they will want to see.
Keep the tone calm and factual. I want this resolved, not a
fight.The IRS reported over $1bn owed to 1.1 million people for a single tax year, with a median refund of $781. Their words: taxpayers usually have three years to claim, and "if they don't file within three years, the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury".
The trap: people who earned too little to be required to file assume there is nothing there. They are exactly the group most likely to be owed money, because tax was withheld from their pay anyway.
Work out whether I have unclaimed tax refunds from past years.
My history: [country, the years I worked, roughly what I earned
each year, whether I filed, and whether tax was withheld from
my pay].
For each year:
- Was I likely over-withheld, and why?
- Was I eligible for any refundable credit I may have missed,
even in years I did file?
- What is the exact statutory deadline to claim that year, and
how long do I have left?
Then tell me:
- Which documents I need to reconstruct each year.
- How to request wage or income transcripts if I have lost
them, and from whom.
- Whether an amendment is the right route for years I did file.
Sort by deadline, soonest first, because these expire for good.When a retailer fails you or goes under, your card issuer is often jointly liable. In the UK, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes the creditor "jointly and severally liable" with the supplier on purchases over £100 and up to £30,000. Card-scheme chargebacks exist worldwide, and the US has billing-error rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act.
The catch: banks route you to a chargeback, which is faster but weaker and has a shorter deadline. Knowing which route you are on is most of the battle.
Help me claim against my card company, not just the retailer.
What happened: [what I bought, cost, date, how I paid, what
went wrong, and every attempt I have made to contact the
seller with dates].
1. Tell me which routes are open to me in my country: a
chargeback, a statutory joint-liability claim, or both.
2. For each, give the deadline and the evidence bar. Say which
is stronger for my situation and why.
3. Warn me if my bank is likely to push me toward the weaker
route, and what to say if they do.
4. Build the timeline of my contact attempts in the format an
issuer expects.
5. Draft the claim.
6. Draft the ombudsman referral I would send if they refuse,
and tell me when I become entitled to escalate.Consumer Credit Act 1974, Section 75
An FTC staff study of 149 consumer class action settlements found a median claims rate of 9%, and just 3% where notice arrived by email. So more than nine in ten eligible people never file, mostly because the notice looks exactly like spam.
The bit people get wrong: most settlements have a tier that requires no receipt at all, just an attestation. That is usually the one worth doing.
Here are the products, services, apps and subscriptions I have
used over the last several years: [paste a list, or a
subscription export, or a bank statement].
For each one, tell me whether there is an open or recent
consumer settlement I might be eligible for.
For any match:
- The class period, and whether my usage falls inside it.
- The proof tiers available. Flag clearly which tier needs NO
receipt, only an attestation.
- The realistic payout for each tier.
- The claim deadline.
- The official settlement administrator site.
Be honest about uncertainty. If you are not confident a
settlement is currently open, say so and tell me how to check
rather than sending me to a claim form that has closed.FTC study on settlement claims rates
UK energy suppliers held a twelve-month average of £3.09bn in customer credit across about 18 million households, an average of £197 each. Suppliers must refund promptly on request, must settle a closed account within 10 working days of a final bill, and owe £40 automatic compensation per breach.
Rental deposits are the same shape. In the UK there are 4.7 million protected deposits averaging £1,175, only 1% go to adjudication, and cleaning is cited in 54% of disputes.
Two things to check.
FIRST, my energy account: [paste the bill, including the
credit balance, my direct debit amount, and my usage history].
Work out whether my direct debit is genuinely over-set, or
whether the balance is normal seasonal build-up before winter.
If it is over-set, draft the refund request including the
meter reading they will ask for.
SECOND, my rental deposit: [paste the landlord's deduction
schedule, and describe the condition report and photos].
Go line by line and tell me which deductions are:
- Fair wear and tear, which cannot be charged for.
- Betterment, where they are claiming a new item to replace an
old one.
- Genuinely chargeable damage.
Then draft my challenge, addressing only the lines worth
disputing, and name the free deposit adjudication service.
Be realistic. Tell me which deductions I should just accept.