Pension tracing services

captainbarnacles

My mum (75) has found documentation from 1995 about her previous work pension with Airtours Plc. There was only a few hundred pounds in it back then but with interest this money could really help her out.
 
I just can't seem to track this down. 
I've tried using the Government tracing website 2hich has a few listings for AirTours PLC one says Aviva and the other says 'The information for this scheme has been archived. It has not been updated for a long time.'

I tried calling Aviva and they have no record of her pension. I'm not sure what to do next. I wish you could just enter her National Insurance number somewhere and find it! Does anyone know if any of the pension tracing companies are any good? We wouldn't mind paying a percentage of they could actually find it.

DE_612183

has she got any reference from that paperwork from 1995?

captainbarnacles

She has a personal benefit statement which shows her details, the balance at 31 Mar 1995 and contact details of the pension dept for Airtours (which are not longer valid).

captainbarnacles

Her details include name, address, dob, NI number but no reference as such.

DE_612183

From what I can see Airtours became part of Thomas Cook - I found this article that may or may not help - but as it mentions 2024 I can only assume that there may something in play - don't give up yet!

https://pensionsage.com/pa/Thomas-Cook-Travel-Schemes-complete-50m-buy-ins-with-PIC.php#:~:text=Three defined benefit (DB) pension,liquidation of Thomas Cook Group.

Marcon

DE_612183 said:

From what I can see Airtours became part of Thomas Cook - I found this article that may or may not help - but as it mentions 2024 I can only assume that there may something in play - don't give up yet!

https://pensionsage.com/pa/Thomas-Cook-Travel-Schemes-complete-50m-buy-ins-with-PIC.php#:~:text=Three defined benefit (DB) pension,liquidation of Thomas Cook Group.

Good thought, but that buy out related to defined benefit schemes - and OP's mother was in a defined contribution arrangement.

OP, don't pay anyone to do the tracing - there is little likelihood that they will be any more successful than you, whatever they promise. Try one of the sites used by pilots or other flight crew. I picked this up by googling on 'Airtours PLC pension scheme' https://www.pprune.org/terms-endearment/28846-airtours-pension.html 

Also try a free search using Gretel.co.uk

One other thing worth trying is a SAR - see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6267734/is-there-a-really-detailed-online-method-to-check-nics/p1 My post of 15 May 2021 relates. It's a long thread (sorry!) but you need to read it to understand why doing that might help - but ONLY if your mother was in a 'contracted out' pension scheme. I doubt you can tell that from the documents she's found, but you never know. In particular, you are looking for the words 'appropriate personal pension' or just 'contracted out'. Could you post some info redacting any personal identifiers, please? 

captainbarnacles

Thanks, I will read through your thread tonight. I forgot to say that we'd tried Gretel but nothing came up there.
I'll see if I can post on the pilots thread (although they may have had a DB scheme?). My mum wasn't a pilot.
Here's the statement...

Marcon

Thank you. Please could you post a screenshot of the 'notes overleaf' in case they include anything useful?

captainbarnacles

Thanks! Here are the notes on the back.

Marcon

Thank you. Right, that clarifies it was a trust-based scheme as opposed to some sort of contract-based personal pension arrangement. Next question - how long was your mother employed by them...?

captainbarnacles

She says she thinks started there in about 1988 but it was another travel agency name then. Airtours acquired that travel agents in 1993 and she left around 1994 when it had changed its name to Going Places.