Why old workplace pensions slip out of sight

Since automatic enrolment began in 2012, millions of UK workers have been quietly building up retirement savings with every employer they have worked for. That is good news. The catch is that a working life of ten, twelve or fifteen jobs can leave you with a trail of small pension pots, each held by a different scheme with its own administrator and its own set of contact details.

Statements go astray when you move house. Employers change names after a merger or a rebrand, so the company you remember no longer exists on paper. Schemes are transferred to new administrators or bought out by insurers. Before long, a perfectly respectable pension can feel as though it has vanished. It has not — it is simply waiting for someone to match you to it.

Tracing those old pensions is worth the effort. Even modest pots add up, and money you cannot see is money you cannot plan with. The good news is that the process is free, entirely within your control, and usually takes a few letters and a bit of patience.

Step one: gather the clues

Start at home. Schemes need evidence of who you are and where you worked, so dig out anything that names an employer or a pension arrangement. Useful things to look for include:

• Payslips, P60s and P45s, which often carry the employer's full legal name and payroll reference.
• Contracts, offer letters and job references, which will help confirm your start and finish dates.
• Annual benefit statements, scheme booklets, and letters from administrators or trustees.
• Bank or building society statements showing pension contributions leaving your pay.
• A list of every address you have lived at, and any names you have used, such as a maiden name.

Then build a simple record for each job: the employer's full name and any trading names, your dates of employment, your job title, your date of birth, your National Insurance number, and the addresses you had while you were there. That package of detail is exactly what a scheme's administration team uses to find you on its records.

Step two: use the official tracing services

The quickest route is the government's free pension tracing service. You enter the name of an employer or a pension scheme, and it returns the current contact details for the scheme or the administrator that looks after it. There is no charge, and you do not need any scheme reference numbers to use it.

Be clear about what the service can and cannot do. It provides contact details, not balances. It will not tell you what a pension is worth, and it cannot do the matching on your behalf — that happens when the scheme checks its own records against the information you supply.

If your first search draws a blank, try a different angle. Search for the scheme name rather than the employer, or for the administrator rather than the scheme. Search again using former company names, including any name the business traded under before a rebrand. Older schemes in particular are often filed under a name you have long since forgotten.

Step three: write to the scheme

Once you have contact details, get in touch directly. Keep your request short and clear. State your full name and any previous names, your date of birth, your National Insurance number, the dates you worked for the employer, and your addresses at the time. Ask them to confirm whether you are a member, and if you are, to send a current statement showing the value and the charges.

Do this for each pension separately, and keep a note of the date you sent each request. Allow around eight weeks for a reply, though schemes with older paper records or defined benefit entitlements can take longer. If you have heard nothing after that, chase politely in writing and ask for an acknowledgement.

If the scheme has changed hands or closed

Pension schemes do not vanish when employers do. A defined benefit scheme whose sponsoring employer has failed may have entered the industry-backed lifeboat fund that protects eligible members, which will hold records of your entitlement. If a scheme was wound up and bought out by an insurer, your benefits may now sit in a policy held in your name, and the administrator should be able to tell you which insurer holds it.

Be cautious about anyone who contacts you out of the blue offering to trace or release a pension for a fee. Legitimate tracing is free. Never share personal details, and never sign a transfer form, in response to a cold call. If you are aged 50 or over, free and impartial guidance is available from the government's pension guidance service before you make any decision.

Keep the record alive from here

Once everything is found, create a single document listing each pension, the provider, the policy or scheme reference, the current value and the date you last checked it. Store it with your will or tell a trusted family member where it is. Update it every couple of years and again in the run-up to retirement.

You may be tempted to consolidate several small pots into one. Sometimes that is sensible, but not always. Before transferring anything, check the charges, any exit fees, and whether you would lose valuable guarantees such as a guaranteed annuity rate, protected tax-free cash or generous defined benefit entitlements. If the numbers are close, take regulated advice. A tidy pension list is worth having — but a well-protected one is worth far more.