Finding old pensions

Singlespeeder

Sorry, I'm sure this will have been asked a gazillion times before ... how do I best track down an old Pension.

You'd think you'd be able to put your NI number in somewhere and it tells you all the pension schemes connected to it....

The company no longer exists but hopefully it's pensions would have been through a Pension company.

I was there for 5 years, leaving in 1996.

I've been to the Gov site and found the parent company, they bought the company I worked for out after I'd been there a year. These too no longer exist.

I suspect it's a wild goose chase tbh

Marcon

Are you sure they offered a pension scheme at all? If they did, were you actually in the pension scheme for the whole five years you were there? If so, it is highly likely you were in a company (occupational) scheme rather than some sort of personal pension arrangement, which is helpful. It is also pretty likely, given the timing, that it was contracted out of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme - in which case the DWP will have a record of your membership.

If you've not yet reached state pension age, do you have a forecast of your state pension? If not, get one https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension and see if it shows a 'COPE' figure. If it does, contact the DWP and ask for more information.

In the meantime, could you give the name of the company you worked for and the name of the company which took it over? There may be other ways to do a bit of delving.