Lost pension

Idiotcats

Hi hoping someone can advise. My pension was with a large company and quite a few years ago the company went under. It was then moved as a pension pot to another company who sold it on to yet another company who guess what?-was dissolved. I totally missed the government help for lost pension contributions as I wasn't contacted concerning this and had no idea about it.
My question is can I recover any monies from my pension from a company  dissolved a few years ago. There was a considerable sum involved.

dunstonh

If it was a defined contribution scheme, then the money should still be there.
If it was a defined benefit scheme, it would almost certainly have ended up at the Pension Protection Fund unless it pre-dates that.

You refer to the pension as a pot and that would suggest it was defined contribution.  However, plenty of people mistakenly refer to their pension as a pot when it isn't.  So, we cannot rely on that.

We need details.   Can you expand on what you know?   name the employer and the companies that you say were involved and if you know what type of pension it was, let us know.  

Marcon

Idiotcats said:

Hi hoping someone can advise. My pension was with a large company and quite a few years ago the company went under. It was then moved as a pension pot to another company who sold it on to yet another company who guess what?-was dissolved. I

Can you be (reasonably) precise about the year in which it went under?

Idiotcats said:

I totally missed the government help for lost pension contributions as I wasn't contacted concerning this and had no idea about it.

If you moved house after leaving that employer, did you update your address with the pension scheme provider? Very easy to overlook, but could explain why you didn't receive further communications. The good news is that you wouldn't have had to do anything if the scheme was covered by the Pension Protection Fund (if it was a defined benefit scheme), nor would you have had to do anything if it was a defined contribution scheme, so lack of communication won't have been that much of an issue here.

Albermarle

This may help in working out what sort of pension it was.
Pension basics | Help with pension basics | MoneyHelper

xylophone

Have you tried

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

Idiotcats

Hi thanks so much for the replies. The pension i had was with Equitable life a final salary pension scheme.  I got n touch with Utmost who took the pension scheme over. Their  reply was that all the funds from my employer were transferred in bulk to Hewlett Bacon and Woodrow. I then tried to find contact details for this company only to find they had been dissolved. 
My employers pension scheme after Equitable life went under, was kept informed of my change of address so i assumed that was sufficient - i still get info from them annually.
Whilst trying to find my pension i found the government scheme to reimburse Equitable Life pension holders for lost monies-it closed in 2015 !! 
I really dont know what to do next-except cry over my lost pension.

Marcon

Idiotcats said:

Hi thanks so much for the replies. The pension i had was with Equitable life a final salary pension scheme.  I got n touch with Utmost who took the pension scheme over. Their  reply was that all the funds from my employer were transferred in bulk to Hewlett Bacon and Woodrow. I then tried to find contact details for this company only to find they had been dissolved. 

Merged with Aon to become Aon Hewitt, then Aon. Try 0344 573 0033

FIREDreamer

Marcon said:

Idiotcats said:

Hi thanks so much for the replies. The pension i had was with Equitable life a final salary pension scheme.  I got n touch with Utmost who took the pension scheme over. Their  reply was that all the funds from my employer were transferred in bulk to Hewlett Bacon and Woodrow. I then tried to find contact details for this company only to find they had been dissolved. 

Merged with Aon to become Aon Hewitt, then Aon. Try 0344 573 0033

If Aon fails, try Milliman …

Marcon

Idiotcats said:

Hi thanks so much for the replies. The pension i had was with Equitable life a final salary pension scheme.  I got n touch with Utmost who took the pension scheme over. Their  reply was that all the funds from my employer were transferred in bulk to Hewlett Bacon and Woodrow. I then tried to find contact details for this company only to find they had been dissolved. 
My employers pension scheme after Equitable life went under, was kept informed of my change of address so i assumed that was sufficient - i still get info from them annually.
Whilst trying to find my pension i found the government scheme to reimburse Equitable Life pension holders for lost monies-it closed in 2015 !! 
I really dont know what to do next-except cry over my lost pension.

The policyholder would have been the trustee of your final salary scheme.

I don't think you have lost your pension - just lost track of it. See if Gretel.co.uk throws up anything useful if you try searching via that.

Also worth contacting https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement for free, impartial help. They will be all too familiar with the Equitable Life saga!

Kste1

Can anyone help or give any guidance my mum is 71 and we believe she may have had a pension at some point due to her working from 15 and in hospitals we were thinking there could be  possibly a SERPs or contracted out SERPs of some sort that she doesn't know about she applied for her record from HMRC last year and never received it to see if she has made any contributions to anywhere and cant use gov trace as they are so old and wouldn't know who they would be with if she has any is there any way we can search using her NINO or other details to see if she had any pensions

xylophone

Presumably your mother is in receipt of her state pension.  

Have a look at her increase letter  from around March this year.

Is a Contracted Out Deduction shown?  Assuming that she is not a widow to whom this only applied after becoming the beneficiary of  a late spouse's pension, this would indicate that at some point she was a member of a contracted out pension scheme.

If she worked in hospitals, there is a chance that she was a member of the NHS scheme.

she applied for her record from HMRC last year 

On this?

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/shortforms/form/DPU_SAR_NI

She could try again - other posters have indicated that such a request did reveal  pension scheme details.