The US federal agency that insures pensions is using the Internet to try to find almost 7,200 people who are owed nearly $13 million (£9.35 million) in benefits from defunct pension plans. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) said that in the past 18 months, its Pension Search Directory had reunited nearly 1,400 people from 40 states with more than $4 million in lost benefits.

The list of names in the directory includes hard-to-find workers whose former employers closed their pension plans and distributed benefits, and workers or retirees from underfunded plans that were taken over by the PBGC when the plans were unable to pay benefits, the agency said.