Employment History of deceased person

macca163

My brother passed away recently at 49 and I am looking after his estate. I can't find a record of his employment to find any pension contributions he made. There is an HMRC form for obtaining employment history of a deceased person but they will only provide the information in cases if claims/accidents - I have been back to them multiple times and got nothing. Does anyone know how to find employment history back earlier than 5 years? 

JoeCrystal

Sorry for your loss. 

Any chances of finding payslips and P60s by any chance?

squirrelpie

Ask his friends about previous employments perhaps? And then approach the employers for details of pension schemes.

Presumably he didn't have a partner and didn't keep files of things?

Brie

His employer should have a cv on file so that would be a good place to start.  Most people would give a history of at least 10 years but possibly given his age he might show much more.

Also ask his current employment pension scheme if there was any transfers in.

Bank accounts should show any income received and could be asked to decipher any short form info.

Brie

oh and stating the obvious....once you know any employers you can use the pension tracing service to find out what benefits he might have accrued.

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

Marcon

macca163 said:

My brother passed away recently at 49 and I am looking after his estate. I can't find a record of his employment to find any pension contributions he made. There is an HMRC form for obtaining employment history of a deceased person but they will only provide the information in cases if claims/accidents - I have been back to them multiple times and got nothing. Does anyone know how to find employment history back earlier than 5 years? 

If you're the executor of his estate (or have applied for letters of administration if he didn't leave a will), have you tried a Subject Access Request for full details of his NI history? That's give you a complete record of his employments and also flag any membership (there won't necessarily be any) of a pension scheme which was contracted out of the State Additional Pension.

See https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/shortforms/form/DPU_SAR_NI?_ga=2.230026460.1544670040.1621021753-1315656139.1609178084 (note the sentence that if you are applying on behalf of someone else, you need to apply in writing - you can't do it online).

jamesd

A subject access request is part of data protection law and that law gives living people or their representatives a right to access their data. After death the freedom of information law replaces the data protection law as it's impossible for a deceased person to be requesting their own records personally or by proxy. A personal representative (estate executor or administrator) may still be able to get some information on request, just not by using a SAR.

DWP has its flaws but they aren't likely to include fulfilling a SAR for a person they know to be deceased and hence unable to make one.

jamesd

Brie said:

oh and stating the obvious....once you know any employers you can use the pension tracing service to find out what benefits he might have accrued.

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

"Declaration

I will only use this service to get contact details for:

• a pension I have had
• a pension someone else may have, and I have their permission"

The brother doesn't have and can't get permission.

Thrugelmir

macca163 said:

My brother passed away recently at 49 and I am looking after his estate. I can't find a record of his employment to find any pension contributions he made. There is an HMRC form for obtaining employment history of a deceased person but they will only provide the information in cases if claims/accidents - I have been back to them multiple times and got nothing. Does anyone know how to find employment history back earlier than 5 years? 

Then it may be a question of waiting and seeing what correspondence arrives for your late brother. To piece everything together. Being an executor isn't always an easy task if the deceased wasn't a well organised person admin wise. 

gozaimasu

Marcon said:

See https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/shortforms/form/DPU_SAR_NI?_ga=2.230026460.1544670040.1621021753-1315656139.1609178084 (note the sentence that if you are applying on behalf of someone else, you need to apply in writing - you can't do it online).

This is very useful. Do you know if they have any other online forms for SARs? I find the tax website extremely user unfriendly.

squirrelpie

As I understand it, pensions aren't part of a person's estate, so aren't relevant for an executor or an administrator of that estate. Maybe that's why it's difficult to find any relevant information? It isn't relevant!