Unclaimed Pensions

aosmotherley

My mother in law recently passed away. My wife is now the sole family survivor and is acting as administrator for her mothers estate. (there was no will)

It seems that her mother was not claiming the private pensions from her late husband who died 10 years ago aged 61. Her husband had three private pension schemes none of which have been claimed by her.

The question is whether her daughter as administrator for the estate is entitled to peruse pension payments for the period when her husband would have been 65 for the period until she died?

Does any one have any suggestions?

Kind Regards
Adrian

Dox

Do you know what sort of pensions they were - final salary, personal pension, Retirement Annuity Contract - any of those ring any bells?

aosmotherley

Thank you for your response.

I will check today and advise further.

Adrian.

Silvertabby

Was your father in law already drawing these pensions when he died? If so, then any entitlement to a widow's pension would have been sorted out then.

Without knowing more about the pensions, impossible to even guess - but do bear in mind that if FIL was already drawing these pensions as annuities then he may have opted for single life policies, meaning that the pensions died with him.

aosmotherley

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

My FIL was still in employment when he died. I am fairly sure was not drawing any of his pensions at the time of his death. Both my FIL and Mother in Law were both in full time employment so I doubt very much he would have taken the pensions early.

I will find out more about the type of pensions he had and advise.

Friendlysmile

My friend was struggling to find her pension, she had the paperwork, had tried the government website, it was not enough to be able to employ a IFA. So with the internet, phone and with her next to me, I spend an hour or so tracking it down, I had to be determined, polite, assertive and knowledgeable, but she now receives it.  In this instant she had a different name had moved house a couple of times, also her employer had folded, the pension fund had been passed around several different companies. I would suggest that you try communicating directly with the companys to find out what your Mum-in-law's estate is entitled to, good luck.
Whilst we are on the subject, does anyone ie MSE team, know how to find out how much money is sitting unclaimed in private pension funds, that which should have been or is due to be paid out but unclaimed?  What is the deadline for claiming? What happens to the money if it is not claimed after the deadline?

Tony_welsh

Re this subject of unclaimed private pensions. There is a considerable amount just in the Uk of unclaimed private pensions. People move jobs, homes, and companies change pension companies. All of which contribute to many of the above pensions being lost in the fog of trying to locate this in later years when needed. 

Is it possible for the government to set up a no nonsense pension locater using name date of birth and national insurance number? This can then recall each of your private pensions for you to simply click and contact. Presently the government website for this purpose requires you to remember the pension provider and employer ( whom now is no longer trading ) so if I can’t recall my pension provider from over thirty years ect then the present site is unable to help me, a lost unclaimed pension tick. This is in the governments interest to provide a no nonsense pension claim to which all pension providers should be made to facilitate with a transparent update each month to a government link to your national insurance number, this way you can monitor from one central point the government website site your pensions collectively with the facility to unify your pensions into one if you wish. 

NoMore

Tony_welsh said:

Re this subject of unclaimed private pensions. There is a considerable amount just in the Uk of unclaimed private pensions. People move jobs, homes, and companies change pension companies. All of which contribute to many of the above pensions being lost in the fog of trying to locate this in later years when needed. 

Is it possible for the government to set up a no nonsense pension locater using name date of birth and national insurance number? This can then recall each of your private pensions for you to simply click and contact. Presently the government website for this purpose requires you to remember the pension provider and employer ( whom now is no longer trading ) so if I can’t recall my pension provider from over thirty years ect then the present site is unable to help me, a lost unclaimed pension tick. This is in the governments interest to provide a no nonsense pension claim to which all pension providers should be made to facilitate with a transparent update each month to a government link to your national insurance number, this way you can monitor from one central point the government website site your pensions collectively with the facility to unify your pensions into one if you wish. 

Not sure you needed to resurrect a 6 year old thread for this, but yes the government are doing just that, they are developing the pensions dashboard Homepage | UK Pensions Dashboards Programme

Albermarle

When looking for unclaimed pensions, you have to be clear on what type of pension it is.
For example the posts above mention 'private pension' but that is not a recognised definition.

A pension can be a Defined Benefit/Final salary type scheme, where there is a guaranteed pension income based on years of service and salary. If you die the pension stops, but usually there is some reduced provision for a Spouse, but no unclaimed pot as such.

The other type of pension is a Defined Contribution/Money purchase where a pot of money is built up over the years. This money can then be used to provide an income in various ways. One way is to buy an annuity which effectively gives the same result as the Defined Benefit pension.
Or you can keep the pot and withdraw from it as and when. In this case some of the money may still be there unclaimed, if it was not sorted out at the time, provider had the wrong address. provider not informed of the death etc