How do I find a lost pension in the UK?
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In short: Use the free gov.uk Pension Tracing Service to find contact details for old workplace or personal pensions from employer names — it does not tell you the balance but points you to the right provider. There is around £30 billion in unclaimed pension savings in the UK.
Content updated:
Gather old payslips, P60s and employer names. The tracing service searches schemes registered to those employers.
Once located, contact each provider for a value statement and check for safeguarded benefits before consolidating.
The Pensions Dashboards Programme will eventually show all pots in one place — until then, tracing is manual.
See pension consolidation guide for safe transfer steps after you find lost pots.
Primary source: gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details
Part of our Pensions & retirement
This quick answer sits inside our wider pensions & retirement hub — with sub-guides, calculators and step-by-step explainers on the same topic.
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