How to find old and lost pensions

Did you know there’s a massive £31.1 billion estimated to be lost in pension pots in the UK. That’s around 3.3 million pension pots, with an average size of £9,500. And, what’s worse is, it’s growing larger all the time!

Source: all the data is from the Pension Policy Institute.

And we have an average of 12 jobs in our lifetime these days (GOV.UK), which could mean quite a few lost pensions over the years.

Don’t panic though, they’re not truly lost (hopefully), the money still exists in your name, you just have no idea where it is!

This can cause problems later in life, as the pension provider (a pension company) probably won’t get in touch to try and give you the pension, and even if they did, they probably couldn’t find you if you've moved house. They’d also prefer people forget about them as they are collecting fees from it.

And, in future you might forget about jobs entirely, or forget what the company was called, and there’s a high chance the company might have gone out of business or merged with another one. All sorts can go on in business over the years.

All this means it’s a very good idea to track down your pension(s) now, just to know where it is, and if you want to, you can combine all your pensions together into a pension that you manage, maybe with things like a useful mobile app, so you’ll never have to worry about forgetting about them, allowing you to manage your retirement savings better overall.

In some cases, by bringing all your pension pots into one, you might be able to save money on fees as you won’t be paying fees to lots of different pension companies, and having your money in one place means you can decide how your pension is managed (for instance managed by experts in the right way for your age).

Anyway, the benefits are endless! The point is, don’t delay. It’s worth getting a handle on your pension pot today as the future you could really benefit. Your pension will make a huge difference to the quality of your life in retirement.

Right, let’s get down to finding those pensions then. And guess what? It couldn’t be easier. Simply let the experts handle things for you and use a pension tracing service (that’s part of a pension provider)…

Pension tracing services

It couldn't be simpler and you can kill two birds with one stone. By not only finding your lost pensions, but moving them into one single pot too, so you never have to worry about it again (plus all those benefits just mentioned above!).

Here’s our top picks, and we’ll run through the details of how they work just below.

Top picks for finding lost pensions

These pension providers won’t charge a fee for finding your lost pensions either (some companies do). You will pay fees once your pension is transferred to them, which is the same for all pension companies.

How pension tracing works

First, let’s assume you have no paperwork at all about your previous pensions, and have no idea where they are. Well, what you do know (hopefully) is where you worked, such as what the company was called.

Well, a pension tracing service can use that information to determine which pension scheme you were paying into from that job, or they can have a very good guess anyway!

They can then get in touch with that pension provider to see if they have a pension in your name, and if they do, they can transfer it over to your new pension pot.

The modern pension companies (like the ones mentioned above), can do this without much input from you, you just simply let them know where and when you worked there. This can be done via their mobile apps, and it normally only takes a few minutes.

If there’s any issues, they’ll get in touch with you over email or phone to run through things if needed.

It’s pretty much as simple as that. Well, it seems simple to us as the customer, but behind the scenes there’s lots of work going on to track down the pension company and sort out all the paperwork that you don’t need to be involved in. It saves you loads of stress and time too, compared to if you were trying to do things yourself.

Important: if you have any details about your old pension at all (like the name of the provider or the rough amount), that will go a long way to making things quicker. So it’s worth having a rummage around those paper draws for anything related to a pension.

After around 6 weeks, your lost pension(s) should simply turn up in your new pension pot with your new provider. It can be shorter, and it can be much longer. It depends on how hard the previous provider makes it (sometimes they really don’t like it when you want to transfer your money away from them).

Finding your pension yourself

You also have the option to find your pensions yourself, and then either keep the pension where it is (and at least you know and have access to it), or transfer it yourself to a different pension provider that you like (here’s where to compare pension providers).

To do this, find any details from your old job, such as a payslip or basically any documentation, and see if there’s any mention of a pension provider on there. Some common ones are Aviva and Nest, but there’s quite a few out there!

If you haven’t got any paperwork, don’t worry. As long as you know the company name that you worked for (their legal name), try the government’s pension tracing service to try and find the pension provider.

If that’s no use, contact your old employer directly and ask them which pension provider they were using when you worked there. You might need to give them your payroll number (on your pay slips) and possibly other ID documents.

If you still can’t find the pension provider, try using a pension tracing service (top picks above).

Once you know the pension provider, you can contact them directly and try and recover any login details if they have an online pension account for customers, or request a statement from them over the phone if not. When on the phone, make sure you tell them your new address.

You’ll need your National Insurance number and possibly other ways to prove your identity too.

Hopefully, after all that, you’ll get confirmation you have a pension with that provider, and hopefully how much it is and some paperwork to go with it, or ideally a login to an online account.

With your pension details, such as your policy number and the pension amount, you can then transfer it to a new pension provider if you want to.

We think the pension providers above, Beach¹ and PensionBee¹, are really great for managing your own pension (even if you don’t use their pension tracing service). They both have mobile apps, pension plans designed for life, and excellent customer service.

Let’s recap

There we have it for finding lost pensions. It can be easier than you thought.

We think it’s easier to use a pension tracing service, especially as the best ones won’t charge you either (you’ll pay fees within your pension after it’s transferred).

For most people, it couldn’t be easier, just add your details in the app, such as a policy number if you have it, or simply where you previously worked, and they can get to work tracking down your pensions!

Picking one with great customer service is essential, so you get regular updates and there’s no long delays in finding and transferring them.

Once your pension is found, it will simply turn up in your new pension pot after around 6 weeks. And that’s it. Pretty simple really right?

We think combining all your pensions together into a single pot is often a great idea. That way there’s no chance you’ll forget about them when it’s time to retire, and you can manage your whole retirement savings in one place, so you can forecast how much you’ll be earning in retirement, and can adjust your current savings accordingly (such as saving a bit more now, for a more comfortable retirement later).

Ok, now it’s time to go and find them! Scroll up to view our top picks for pension providers to first find your lost pensions, but also to manage your pension afterwards.

Good luck! We hope you find them soon.