How to trace old pensions

There can be all sorts of reasons why you may have lost track of your pension savings.

When you leave an employer, you also leave whatever pension scheme you were paying into. That doesn’t mean the savings or entitlements you’ve built inside that pension cease to exist - they are still yours and they will still count towards your overall pension money when your reach retirement.

The problem is that it is easy to forget about these old pensions, as many of the points of contact you have as an employee - your monthly pay slip, internal communications etc - fall away when you change jobs.

If you’ve moved between employers a few times over the years, you may have multiple old pensions, and if your contact details have changed for any reason - like moving house - then the link between you and your old pensions can easily be lost.

It has resulted in there now being a huge pile of retirement savings which are considered ‘unclaimed, inactive, or lost’ - £31.1 bn in 2024 according to the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) *. And the problem is getting worse, according to the PPI, because there has been an increase in the rate of job changes since the pandemic. Additionally, auto-enrolment into pensions - which was introduced in 2012 - means more employees are saving into a pension without actively choosing to.

There could be pensions worth many thousands of pounds out there with your name on - and the good news is that there are ways to find them. Here's how you can trace your old pensions.

What counts as ‘lost’?

It’s not uncommon for people to be completely unaware they have old pensions. Perhaps they were enrolled without being aware of it at the time, or it may simply be long enough ago that they don’t remember having joined. Clearly these would count as examples of lost pensions.

Perhaps more common are instances where someone is sure they do have a pension from an old job, but is unaware of what it is worth or how they might go about finding out. They know they’ll have to track it down one day, but they see no immediate need to do it.

These should be considered lost as well and are worth tracking down sooner rather than later. Why? Because without knowing all your pension savings it is impossible to really see what you might have in the future, meaning you don’t have all the information you need to make your retirement plans. If you can see the value of all your retirement savings you’ll know in good time if you need to save more to meet your targets.

Where to look?

To find old pensions you’ll need to know the names of your previous employers. This might not be as straightforward as it sounds.

Companies often change names or ownership structures so that they don’t exist in the same way as they used to.

The Government has established a pensions tracing service to help with this process. The official service is available at Gov.uk, or by calling 0800 731 0193.

The service will help find the names of employers - including in the public sector - and provide details of the pension administrator for the employer’s pension scheme. Note - the pension administrator is likely to be a different company from your employer.

It will be the pension administrator for your old pension who should be able to give you the details of your old scheme. If you are struggling to find how to contact them, and the pension tracing service can’t help, look through any old correspondence you have from the employer or administrator relating to your pension. If you don’t have anything, can old colleagues help out? If it still exists, you could write to your old employer for help finding the pension administrator.

The information you’ll need

If you have been able to find details for the company that administers your old pension, write to them requesting details of your pension. To do so you’ll need to include as many bits of relevant information that you can. These might include your plan or policy number, your date of birth, your National Insurance number and the date you joined or left the scheme.

As well as providing these details, you should also ask for:

• The current value of the pension pot
• Any nominated recipient of death benefits
• How much has been paid into the pension
• The charges you are paying for management of the pension
• A projection of the income the pension is likely to pay at your chosen retirement date
• Details of how the pension pot is being invested and the options for making changes
• Any charges for transferring the pension to another provider
• Any special features, such as a guaranteed annuity rate or a guaranteed minimum pension
• The death benefits – in other words, how much money would be paid from the pension if you died

Moneyhelper, the Government-run free money guidance service, has produced template letters which include these details that you can print off and use.

What to do next?

If you have managed to trace your old pensions, you may want to consider transferring them into one pension account so that you can easily manage your retirement savings in one place. The more visibility you have over your retirement saving, the more you’re likely to increase your saving to keep things on track.

Having all your pension savings in one place could make managing them easier for you. It’s important to understand that pension transfers are a complex area and may not be suitable for everyone. Before going ahead with a pension transfer, we strongly recommend that you compare the benefits, charges and features offered, including any exit charges, terminal bonuses or protected tax free cash entitlements. You can find out more by reading our transfer factsheet and should speak to an authorised financial adviser if you are unsure about proceeding.

Source:

^* Research was commissioned in September 2024 by the Pension Policy Institute.