Pension tracing service launched

Ever wonder what happened to that pension you paid into thirty years ago?

Well, the Department for Work and Pensions has decided it’s time to find out, and have been working with the Pension Tracing Service to launch a website to help people track down their old pension policies.

Taking into consideration the demands of working life and the fact that people, on average, have eleven jobs during their lifetime, it is no great shock that such things are lost in transit. It has been suggested that there are currently £400 million in unclaimed pension savings that people have either lost track of or forgotten about, and which are left untouched in pension schemes across the country.

The new website is designed to track down those policies directly linked to your employment. The service will search a database of more than 320,000 pension administrators and will provide trace results immediately, so there is no waiting around for months on end. You can trace your scheme using your old employer’s details and are then provided with their contact details. Simply get in touch to see if you have a pension pot you had forgotten about.

If you know you paid £100 into a pension scheme thirty years ago then the hassle of tracking down your old scheme to demand it back may not be worth the admin. However, if you think you may have squirrelled away a substantial sum in your previous employment and you aren’t sure either where it is, what you need to do, or how to get in touch with them when the time comes, then this is definitely something we would recommend.

Just follow the link below to get started:

www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details