Tracing old pensions

If you’ve changed jobs during your career, you may have a pension with more than one employer or pension provider. It’s important to track down all the different pension schemes you’ve paid into, so that you can be sure you’re claiming everything you’re entitled to in retirement.

How can I find out all the pensions schemes I’ve paid into?

It can be tricky to keep on top of all the pension schemes you’ve paid into throughout your working career. Fortunately, The Pension Tracing Service is here to help.

The Pension Tracing Service is free and can help you trace a pension you’ve lost track of, even if you don’t have the contact details of the pension provider.

Before using the service collect as much information as you can, including:

• the name of your previous employer or pension service (you will need this to get started)
• any previous names it had
• the type of business it ran
• whether it changed address
• when you belonged to the scheme

The Pension Tracing Service will only tell you the contact details of the pension’s administrator. You will then need to contact the pension administrator to find out whether you have a pension, what value it is and to ask for it to be paid out.