Old Pensions advice

stevehd

Hi all, please forgive me if this has been asked before, can't seem to find the answers anywhere.
I'm a bit of a thicko when it comes to finances, and need advice and info.
Since starting work in around 1984 ish, I have had various jobs and moved around a bit, I think most of these jobs have had company pensions attatched,but not sure of all of them, I know I have had at least 2 with pensions. Anyway, since I have moved a few times,and lost lots of paperwork over the years, I don't know what to do about what happens with the pensions in question.
I have tried to find addresses for the pension schemes,but what I need to know is what happens if I do nothing? Will the companies contact me at 55? or WILL they even find me? if so, HOW?
could I transfer all my old pensions into my current work placed pension or just leave them?
Just confused about the whole thing, so Any advice or suggestions please,
OH and I'm 51 now, sorry and Thanks
Thankyou

OldMusicGuy

Nothing will happen at 55. The money will sit in all of those pensions (and it's hopefully been growing all the time and will continue to grow) until you tell the pension schemes what you want to do with it. If they don't have your address, they cannot contact you so it's up to you to get in contact with them.

Use this free service to find the addresses of the pension schemes: https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

You will need at least the employer's name to find them. Once you have the pension administrator's contact details, get in touch with them with your NI number and they will be able to tell you pretty quick if you have a pension with them.

You may be able to transfer the pensions to your current employer scheme but it depends on the type of pension. The first thing to do is to get details of all the pensions, find out the current value and also get the details of the pension scheme itself.

Dox

Whether they look for you depends on the rules of the scheme. Some schemes require members to claim their pension (i.e. you need to contact them); others will try to find you using one of the tracing services available, but these are far from 100% successful, so don't rely on it.

The advice in the post above is spot on, so I'd get cracking on finding your pensions and making sure they have up to date contact details for you.

enthusiasticsaver

Great advice from Old Music Guy. Make sure you contact the pension companies. I have a very old pension which on leaving employment with that company said I was due £221 per year. No great shakes but years later I found it that due it being revalued each year up to it being paid out it will pay me almost £4K per year from next year when I am 60. Transfer value of almost £67k so even if you think it is small it is still worth chasing.

atush

if your company you worked for is still open and operating, call HR for details of their scheme giving the dates you worked there.

I would use the advice in post 2, but am aware of some reports where a pension did not turn up using that service so double check. have you got any old payslips?

stevehd

Thanks very much for the advice so far guys,I am trying to get details of the old pension schemes as we speak, Its a hard slog as I have no paperwork at all any more,only the most recent ones,but i'll get there in the end,Thanks for the help people, i'll keep you posted if i find anything out,hopefully it will help somebody else too.

xylophone

Have you obtained a state pension forecast?

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

LHW99

If / when the Government's "pensions dashboard" is set up, that may be a help.
(its a prototype at the moment https://pensionsdashboardproject.uk/)