Please help - lost pensions record

borischelski

I worked for a company for 9 years starting back in the early nineties. Throughout this time I contributed 6% of my salary monthly to my employers pension fund. This money was deducted from my salary slips.

Shortly after leaving this company I was advised that this companies pension scheme had been transferred to the Pensions Protection Fund.

During the ensuing years I received frequent notifications that this pension scheme pension scheme was transferred to a multitude of different companies.

Today I contacted the Pension Protection Fund and was advised that they have no record of me as a member of this scheme. They explained that in the circumstances it is down to me as an employee to provide evidence that I was a member of the scheme.

Whilst I’m normally meticulous about maintaining records, reflecting that so many years have passed unfortunately I recently completed a spring clean and threw away a lot of my old pay slips.

Is it correct that the ball is in my court to prove that I was a member of this scheme ?

I cannot imagine that over the years I am the only employee with this predicament.

Is there is a recommended process or next steps for my to start investigating to establish and prove that I was a member of this pension scheme ?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

xylophone

Have you checked your state pension statement?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Was the pension scheme "contracted out"?

And try

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

Marcon

Yes, it is up to you to prove you have benefits in the scheme. Payslips alone wouldn't be enough - you should have received benefit statements while you were paying in to the scheme and certainly should have received one at the time you left the employer/scheme.

What you are saying doesn't quite make sense - if the employer went bust and the scheme was transferred to the PPF, it would have stayed there, not been 'transferred to a multitude of different companies'. Are you sure it was a defined benefit (final salary) scheme?

As for tracing it, start here: https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/pension-problems/making-a-complaint/common-concerns/lost-pensions