How are pensions lost?

Nearly 1 in 5 people will lose track of at least one pension pot¹. We change jobs, move house and pension details easily get misplaced.

How to trace lost pension pots

• Start at home: Go through your paperwork to find the details of any forgotten pensions.
• Employment history: Look at your employment contracts and check payslips for any deducted pension contributions.
• Contact your previous employers: Ask for the details of their pension schemes.

Still no luck? Try searching on the Companies House website for the names of all closed and existing UK companies. Or visit the government’s pension tracing service to find your lost pension details.

Tracking down your personal or workplace pension

A personal pension is slightly different to a workplace pension. To find your:

• personal pension – try contacting the pension provider who set up your personal pension
• workplace pension – try contacting your previous employer to find your lost workplace pension.

Discover the different types of pensions.

Your pensions may not be lost

There’s a chance that your pension contributions could have been refunded by a previous employer.

This could apply to you if:

• you left your employer before 1975 – unless you worked there for a long time – usually over 15 years
• you left your employer between April 1975 and April 1988 – unless you were over the age of 26 and had worked over 5 years for your employer  
• you left your employer after 1988 – unless you had worked over 2 years for your employer.

Found your lost pension or previous employer?

Give them some key details so they can trace your lost pension quickly and easily.

Details to give a previous pension provider:

• Your name (current and previous, if different), date of birth and National Insurance number
• Your address (current and previous, if different)
• The date you joined and left the pension scheme (if known)

Details to give a previous employer:

• The name of the company you worked for (if it’s changed)
• The address of the company you worked for (if it’s changed)
• The date you started and left the company

Questions you could ask

It’s important to find out as much information as possible once you’ve found your previous employer or pension provider. For example, you could ask:

• What’s the current value of my pension pot, and the estimated value on my expected retirement date?
• Are there any management charges, and if so, how much?
• Do I have any nominated beneficiaries? (Any family, friends, charity or organisation you’d like your pension savings to go to if you die before taking it.)
• Is my pension a defined benefit scheme or a defined contribution scheme? (Read more about these pensions)
• Would there be any charges if I transferred my pension pot to another provider?
• Are there any pension guarantees included eg guaranteed annuity rates?

Make your life easier, combine your pensions

Once you have found your lost pension, you may wish to get advice before deciding what to do with it next. If you have other pensions elsewhere, you could consider combining them into one pot with The People’s Pension – making it simpler to manage and keep track of. 

Find out more about combining your pensions.