Opted out sometime in late 1980's and need to track down my pension as left UK

Chantellesquandry

Hey all
Sometime in around 1989/90 my employer had everyone meet with pension advisors. I was about 19 at the time and was just about able to pay my rent so a pension was not at the top of my list of things to start finding money for.  However, in the meeting I was advised to opt out as instead of my money being invested by the government it would be managed by a private firm which would mean more money for me when I retired.  It seemed like a good idea so I signed up.  I cannot find any paper work on it and am making pension arrangements for an RTS in Jersey where I now live and want to see if I can transfer this.  I've also realised that as I moved from the UK in 2003 nothing would have been going into this pot since then.  I tried the GOV website but as I don't know the name of the company have not been able to make progress.
I would be most grateful if anyone on here could point me in the right direction.
Many thanks

Thrugelmir

Did you actually opt in?  

xylophone

Do you mean that you "contracted out" into an APP? See here
https://techzone.adviserzone.com/anon/public/pensions/Tech-guide-contracting-out#anchor_3
under Appropriate Personal Pension.

Did you also "opt out" of the occupational scheme provided by your employer?

Chantellesquandry

Thrugelmir said:

Did you actually opt in?  

I think it was opting out. It was explained to me that instead of the government investing my pension this private company wouuld do so instead.  Reading the long long 63 page thread I think this was the SERPS thing where people were opting out and then generally be advised to opt back in later.  After the initial meeting and signing the paperwork I have not done anything since.

xylophone

Have you obtained a state pension forecast?

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

It might be possible to check where the NI rebates went.

Try HMRC?
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/national-insurance-enquiries-for-employees-and-individuals

Lorian

I has the same thing happen at a similar time, similar age - mine was all put in a Section 32A Individual policy with an insurance company.  In my company it happened with everyone under the minimum age to join the company pension scheme. Yours might have gone somewhere different of course. Mine had a reasonable sum in it. It had no GMP rights so I transferred it.

Marcon

Chantellesquandry said:

Thrugelmir said:

Did you actually opt in?  

I think it was opting out. It was explained to me that instead of the government investing my pension this private company wouuld do so instead.  Reading the long long 63 page thread I think this was the SERPS thing where people were opting out and then generally be advised to opt back in later.  After the initial meeting and signing the paperwork I have not done anything since.

If you don't have a record of the pension provider who provided the personal pension, you'll find it very hard to track down. The Government's free pension tracing service can't help without the name of the employer (where you belonged to an occupational scheme) or the pension provider (where you took out a personal pension). The DWP's records will show if you had a period of being contracted out of SERPS, but they won't be able to tell you the pension provider unless this was an occupational scheme.

If your employer from 1989/90 is still around, ask them, just in case they have a record of who provided the advice (likely that all employees were pushed towards the same personal pension).

Chantellesquandry

Thanks for your replies - now starting to get quite worried.
My employer was not paying into the pension either but I believe that the initial meeting was for that, if I took out a pension then then the employer would contribute.  Unfortunately, at that time, I was just out of college living on my own so I didn't have any spare cash to put into a pension.  This is when the representative told me about opting/contracting out and I meet with him a week or so later in a cafe and we completed the forms.  Have tried to contact my employer at the time, Middleton Potts, but I think they have closed down. 

Marcon

Chantellesquandry said:

Have tried to contact my employer at the time, Middleton Potts, but I think they have closed down. 

If you mean the solicitors, they're still around: Middleton Potts, 3 Cloth Street, City of London, London, EC1A 7NP

xylophone

Have you yet obtained a state pension forecast? See above.

Have tried to contact my employer at the time, Middleton Potts, but I think they have closed down. 

The firm of solicitors? https://www.internationallawoffice.com/Directory/Middleton-Potts/London#

 Merged with Hill Dickinson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_Dickinson

Chantellesquandry

xylophone said:

Have you yet obtained a state pension forecast? See above.

Have tried to contact my employer at the time, Middleton Potts, but I think they have closed down. 

The firm of solicitors? https://www.internationallawoffice.com/Directory/Middleton-Potts/London#

 Merged with Hill Dickinson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_Dickinson

I've emailed this morning - hopefully will get a response.
If my contributions were being paid to a third party though surely DWP must know who they are paying them over to? They must have some record of where the contributions are going......?