pension - minimum earnings / multiple employers query

Courteous

Hi, 
I'm a newbie to the topic of pensions and retirement planning. I've been reading up in the past few weeks but have a query about how pensions work if you've had multiple jobs over the years. 
My first job was in the early 2000s (I think 2007/8). I've had quite a few different employers - some casual/part time jobs, other full-time jobs for a year or two at a time.
I understand that automatic pension enrollment began a few years ago (though not sure when), so I probably haven't been accruing pension earlier than 2013. 
From 2013 I had a 'proper' job with a FTSE company, for 5 years, and have looked into this and see I was enrolled in the pension scheme there and have all of the details for that. For my current full time role with a different organisation I am also enrolled on the pension scheme. 
What I'm unclear on is whether or not, for any of the other jobs I've had - part time, or full time but short-term, before 2013 - I could have been enrolled on pension schemes? I would assume not as I don't think I made any special proactive effort to pay into a scheme. But, if automatic enrollment was in force, would I have been enrolled automatically? I am unsure if you have to have earned a certain amount first, or have to be employed for a certain period of time, before that would happen. So I suppose I've 3 questions
1. when did automatic pension enrollment begin?
2. can you be enrolled on a pension scheme if your employment is part-time, and/or short term?
3. Do you have to have earned a certain minimum amount before you would be eligible for pension accruing?

I haven't contacted any employers I've had yet, other than the FTSE company, as wanted to find out the above information first. 

Albermarle

Auto enrolment started in 2012, but only for large companies , it was 3 or 4 years before all companies were included.
However before auto enrolment started, many companies already offered a pension scheme, so you can not assume that earlier jobs did not come with a pension. 

Do you have to have earned a certain minimum amount before you would be eligible for pension accruing?
There is a minimum amount that you need to earn before an employer is forced to offer you a pension and pay into it. However some employers will just offer you a pension anyway .

Courteous

Thanks for your comment - that's helpful. Follow up question - 
I was employed over 2012-2013 by a (small) company and from that earned c. £20k. Do you think worth checking to see if I was paying into a pension there? 

squirrelpie

You might have been enroled in some pensions and you might have left it in the schemes when you left. Only you know what you did. In general it's wise to keep all such records, even if you don't look at them. For now you'd need to contact all those companies and ask them whether they know and who the pension scheme is run by. Then contact all the pension schemes and give them as much detail as you can to see whether you have money in any of them.

If you can wait a couple of years though, you may be able to check using a new-fangled facility called the pensions dashboard that supposedly will let everybody see all their pensions in one place. It sounds like you have time, so let's hope it works

https://www.pensionsdashboardsprogramme.org.uk/programme-timeline/

https://www.pensionsdashboardsprogramme.org.uk/

Brie

You can check all the companies you worked for to see if they had any pension schemes using a tracing service such as this.  

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

Any search should be done free of charge and with no obligation.  Once you have a name and address for the pension scheme you can write/email/ring each to check what they might have for you.  

All that said - it's possible that if you were only with a company for a few months and they did have a scheme you may well have been refunded any contributions you made as the benefit accrued would have been considered trivial.  But even if there's a couple of £££ to be had it's best to check so you don't lose out.

LHW99

Have you any old payslips? They may give you an indication of any deduction.

Secret2ndAccount

If you worked for a company for less than two years they would have offered you your pension contributions back, or to transfer them to another scheme. So, even if you did enrol with one of those companies' schemes, it doesn't mean that you have any pension with them.

Courteous

Hi, 
thanks very much all for your input - very helpful. I now have a list of all my previous employers' details from HMRC so for a starting point will use these along with the pension tracing service flagged further up and see where I get to with that.
I certainly can't recall either having any conversations about pensions, making any conscious decision to pay into a scheme, or upon leaving jobs having any discussion/ receiving any paperwork where pension was specifically mentioned. 
LHW99 -  I don't have any old payslips, unfortunately.

Brie

Courteous said:

I certainly can't recall either having any conversations about pensions, making any conscious decision to pay into a scheme, or upon leaving jobs having any discussion/ receiving any paperwork where pension was specifically mentioned. 

Some schemes/employers had the default to have you join unless you opted out.  Others you had to opt in.  That's why NEST was set up the way it was so that the employee had to actively opt out of it, repeating every 3 years.  So basically it's possible no one talked to you about it because (as too frequently is the case) "everyone knows that they have to opt in/out".

Hopefully you find a few little nest eggs hidden away.