Pension-finding tool used 1.2m times - MSE News

Former_MSE_Naomi

There are billions of pounds swirling around in lost pensions and figures released to MSE by the Government show its free Pension Tracing Service tool has been used 1.26 million times in the first nine and a half months of this year...

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'Pension-finding tool used 1.2m times - how to track down your share of £20bn'

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rtho782

The way pensions work in this country is an an utter joke. Each person should have one account linked to their NI number.

I have had so many jobs that I have no hope of ever finding all these pensions or even remembering the exact company I worked for.

Thrugelmir

rtho782 wrote: »

I have had so many jobs that I have no hope of ever finding all these pensions or even remembering the exact company I worked for.

That's your problem not anybody elses. The technology didn't even exist in the past to maintain databases of this magntitude.

JoeCrystal

And? You should kept all the paperwork relating to it. Your best guess I think is to find all the payslips that you got given and work through the list. Hopefully, you would find all your pension pots. Don't lose hope

rtho782

Thrugelmir wrote: »

That's your problem not anybody elses. The technology didn't even exist in the past to maintain databases of this magntitude.

The US manages it with 401(k) accounts. These are per person not created by each employer a person has.

JoeCrystal wrote: »

And? You should kept all the paperwork relating to it. Your best guess I think is to find all the payslips that you got given and work through the list. Hopefully, you would find all your pension pots. Don't lose hope

You are suggesting that I should have kept all such paperwork all through my teens and 20s (I'm 35 now). Given the unstable nature of rental housing for my generation, that doesn't seem very reasonable.

I have spent most of the morning trying to chase pension pots. Some of my former employers are no longer trading. One of them is a large financial institution with lots of different names (various legal entities, Ltds, under one banner) that I'm not even sure which one I should be searching for.

After a number of phone calls I have found nothing.

There is no reason this could not just be tied to an individual account linked to your NI number.

greenglide

HMRC have records of most pension contributions. After all they refund the tax!


The pensions finding tool ought to query the HMRC records and return the scheme details for all schemes that they have tied to a particular NINO. Job done!


The pensions dashboard is supposed to be going to do that but there was talk of binning that recently.


While people ought to keep records of these things we all know that people will lose track of at least some over a 40 year or more working life!


Database sizing is a total red herring. HMRC will have this data already. Mainly in NIRS, NIRS2, NPS.

steampowered

rtho782 wrote: »

I have had so many jobs that I have no hope of ever finding all these pensions or even remembering the exact company I worked for.

You could just keep payslips and annual pension statements from your old jobs ... its not rocket science.

cfw1994

steampowered wrote: »

It is not hard to keep payslips from all your old jobs.

Don't blame the government because you haven't kept paperwork. It shouldn't be the government's job to look after your private financial affairs !!!

Harsh.....I don't have 15 years of payslips neatly filed away, & I have a wide 2-drawer filing cabinet of rubbish in my study, & on a topic like this, I *would* blame the Government: it is within their powers to sort this out.

If you had many jobs, I guess it could be tricky, but sadly some of these things are down to you to sort out - I do agree that there OUGHT to be a system (perhaps driven by HMRC) to do this for you, but sadly it is down to you. Shouldn't be the case, but it is.

Take time to write down those jobs and chase up, if you are 35, you have a few years to track 'em down!

FWIW, I had forgotten about a 6-figure pot I had until I went to a 'pension day' thing for a company I was with - the pension fund had swapped early on there, & I had only 'tracked' the original one....so things can work out okay.

Thrugelmir

rtho782 wrote: »

You are suggesting that I should have kept all such paperwork all through my teens and 20s (I'm 35 now).

Just before you were born I was involved in a major computerisation project for a major life assurance company. They bought two second hand main frames. Both took up the space of two tennis courts. Had the computing power of a current PC. That's the scale and speed of change of technology.

Important documents are your responsibility to maintain. This isn't a nanny state where there's someone to do your admin. I've managed to keep track of my life for far longer. Used to be common sense to do so.

Kynthia

rtho782 wrote: »

You are suggesting that I should have kept all such paperwork all through my teens and 20s (I'm 35 now). Given the unstable nature of rental housing for my generation, that doesn't seem very reasonable.

I'm older than you and I have every paysip for the past 20 years in just one compartment an expandable folder. The other sections contain other important documents about pensions, tax, mortgage, warranties, etc.

You could also scan them and save them electronically. However I'd highly recommend every keep every hardcopy p60 until after retirement as it's more reliable long term due to technology changes and doesn't take much room.

You need to find your pension administrator/provider, so if the companies with multiple subsidiaries all use the same one it doesn't matter which you worked for. Just ask to speak to the payroll/pensions/HR team of your best guess and ask for the pension administrator/provider details.

MSE_Laura_F

I've just reopened this thread. I'd love to hear about any recent successes with tracing pensions. Please share your story here.