‘IT WORRIES ME OTHERS ARE IN THIS POSITION’

into an official pension fund and then withdraw the money upon retirement. Lawrence withdrew two lump sums but says he was advised by a senior member of the PFA to move the rest of his money into a private pension fund. However, he suffered alcoholism, depression and serious financial issues, and after his bank account shut down in 2011, he stopped receiving his pension income. When, in late 2017, he contacted the PFA for help locating his fund, the organisation were unable to find the money. Lawrence again wrote to the PFA following the death of his mother in Jamaica last September, pleading for help in locating the fund, which he estimated to be worth £7,000. In January, some 14 months later, he was told by a PFA trustee that it would be very difficult to help without further paperwork. It was then that Lawrence came to Sportsmail. Remarkably, within two days of our phone call to the PFA last month, Lawrence’s fund had been found and he has now been paid in full. Lawrence said: ‘It’s about players from previous generations having the financial support and advice they need. A lot of them are struggling with finances and depression. I have my money now but it worries me to think there may be other players in similar positions hitting the same roadblocks.’ The PFA said in a statement: ‘The PFA received a request from a former member, Jamie Lawrence, in late 2017 to assist him in ascertaining why he had failed to receive monthly pension payments since 2011. Upon investigation it became apparent that due to the closing of his bank account around 2011 the payments duly ceased. ‘The PFA made enquiries on his behalf and located his fund. This task was made more challenging because the pension company had been bought out by several new pension providers and Jamie Lawrence had failed to provide forwarding addresses after he had moved home on a number of occasions. ‘Notwithstanding this the PFA investigation led to Jamie being able to notify the pension provider of his new bank details and therefore receive the balance he was owed. ‘We trust this makes it clear that after being asked by a former member to investigate and locate his pension fund with very little documentation, the PFA did indeed complete this task and the member is now in receipt of all the funds that he was seeking. The fact this took some time was due to the challenging issues outlined.’ The PFA have also said they will be happy to assist Lawrence in the future.