Do you know how to find lost pensions?

When changing jobs, you won’t just be getting a new employer. You’re also likely to be enrolled into a new workplace pension – on top of the three or four you may already have from previous employers.

In fact, that number of pensions could be on the low side, given that the average person will have 11 different jobs in their lifetime. 

If you're not sure how many pension pots are in your name, you're not alone. Around 2.8m pensions are considered 'lost' – an increase of 75% over the past four years, according to the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) and the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The average lost pot is worth £9,470, and finding one isn’t always straightforward.

Here, Which? explains why so many people lose touch with their pensions and challenge volunteers to track them down. 

How much do we know about our pensions?

We surveyed 2,000 members of the general public in November 2022 to find out how much they know about their workplace pensions.

Of those who said they had a workplace pension, 55% said that they were confident they knew how many pots they have in total and 18% said that they weren’t confident.

We asked workers what they know about their current job’s defined contribution (DC) pension – the most common type of workplace scheme where both you and your employer contribute, and these contributions are then invested.

Under auto-enrolment rules, your employer will pay a minimum of 3% and you’ll pay a minimum of 5%, although you could both choose to pay more. 

Only 42% of those we surveyed with a DC pension knew the percentage of their salary they and their employer contributed, and 40% knew the exact amount. 

Just 31% knew what their pension was worth.

• Find out more: pensions auto-enrolment explained

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How easy is it to track down your pensions?

We challenged four volunteers at Which? – who between them hold 13 different pensions from different employers – to track down key information about each of their schemes. 

This included the scheme number, contact details, the total value of the pension, where it’s invested and a projected total at their retirement age.

None of our volunteers had reviewed their retirement savings in this way before, and had to comb through years’ worth of pension statements to complete this task. 

So, what did they find out?

'I was stuck in feedback loop of impossibility’

Joey Willoughby-Rainsford, 31, struggled to hunt down the pension from his ex-employer, Ocado.

He got in touch with the company's customer service department and was told to contact HR, but the only email he was given was a recruitment address and his emails went unanswered.

He said: ‘More training needs to be given to agents of contact centres to deal with past employees. It’s a mystery who runs that pension [with Ocado] and how much is in it, the investments and the charges. I don’t have a clue.’

Joey had more luck with another pension pot, but despite knowing the pension was managed by Legal & General, he struggled to access his account as it was linked to an email address he no longer uses.

He said: ‘I was stuck in a loop where I had to log into the system by accessing a password reset option, which was sent to the old email. I didn’t have access to this, so it needed to be sent to my new email, but to change the email [linked with the account], I needed to log in.’ 

Ocado told us that it was working to fix the matter, while Legal & General said it had to follow security procedures, but was able to restore Joey's access.

'I had to use the government tracing service'

Christina Woodger, 33, thought that she may have three pensions when she began the exercise of tracking them down, but she could only confirm one.

To find the two potential missing pots, she used the government’s pension tracing service to find the pension details for one ex-employer, which had gone into administration, but the pension provider didn’t return her calls.

Christina did manage to get in touch with the other company where she'd worked as a student, which confirmed she had not been a member of its pension scheme.

She said the experience had made her think about her retirement a lot more.

'I think because I knew auto-enrolment had come in - and I think that's a good thing - I assumed I was covered, and it didn't occur to me to look into exactly how much I would be getting. And issues, such as what would happen if you went freelance or if you went on maternity leave, etc, I hadn't really thought about before.

'And then things such as where my pension is being invested as I don't want to retire on money that's been invested in a way I don't think is ethical. I hadn't really thought of that before, either, and now I'm starting to.'

• Find out more: how your pension can save the planet

'They asked me to send a letter'

Gareth Strange, 45, who has six pension pots, found that some of his statements had been going to an old address.

Luckily, he still had access to them as it was his mother’s house, but when it came to update his personal details he found that the process varied between companies.

Most allowed him to simply change his details online, but one required him to send a letter to request this change, requiring much more time and effort than you might expect for such a basic change.

Excellent record keeping was key

One of our volunteers found it easy to find the information they needed, partly due to excellent record keeping.

Silvia Robelo, 42, had kept every letter sent to her relating to pension schemes run by previous employers.

She said: ‘I had letters on top of my wardrobe from every company I’d worked for, so I read them and organised them by date.’

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The need for pensions dashboards

Tracking down individual pension pots is one thing, but understanding how they will fit together to fund your retirement is a much trickier issue.

The solution proposed by the government – and long campaigned for by Which? – is introducing pensions dashboards.

These don't yet exist, but in theory will let you view up-to-date details about your pension pots as well as the state pension in one place online. They could also help reunite you with lost pots.

Schemes will be joining the dashboard system in stages, starting this spring, but the public won’t have access to dashboards until summer 2024 at the earliest.

• Find out more: 5 things you need to know about pensions dashboards

Small pots consultation 

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a consultation on small pension pots, applying to England, Scotland and Wales. It's set to run until 27 March 2023. 

Occupational pensions are devolved in Northern Ireland; the consultation document says it expects Northern Ireland will make similar provisions, but there's no detail on what these are or when they might come into force.

Two options being considered include a default consolidator, where small pots would automatically be transferred into a scheme, and a 'pot follows member' scheme, where a pension pot would follow an employee when they get a new job and automatically move to their new employer's scheme. 

5 tips for tracking down your pension

If you don't know who your pension is with, or if your ex-employer has gone out business, here are some tips to help you track it down:

1. Search for old correspondence

Employers are required to provide details of their pension scheme within six weeks of you starting work, so look back for postal correspondence or emails from that time.

Direct contribution schemes are legally required to send you annual statements every year, and many defined benefit schemes will send these as well.

2. Ask your ex-employer for details 

Ask your ex-employer if they can provide you with the details of your pension scheme. If it's unresponsive or has gone out of business, see if any ex-colleagues have information.

3. Use the pension tracing service

The pension tracing service searches a database of more than 200,000 workplace and personal pension schemes to try to find the contact details you need. It's free to use. 

You can search there online directly or call on 0800 731 0193.

4. Use a private tracing service

If you don't have any luck with the pension tracing service, you could try a private one.

• Gretel The assets-tracing service launched last year and is free to use. It can also help reunite you with other lost products such as bank accounts and insurance policies.
• ABI Lost pensions If your former pension provider has been taken over by another company, you can find details by searching ABI lost pensions. 
• The Pension Tracing Service Not to be confused with the government's tracing service, this is a private service which launched in 2012 and is free to use. 

5. Keep your details up to date  

Once you find out the contact details of your pension pot provider, ensure the details they hold about you are up to date, including your postal address, email address and phone number.