I thought finding my old pensions would be straightforward - and was shocked by how many blockers I encountered.
Nearly a third of savers don’t know how much is in their pension pots, and a fifth have never checked their pension savings, according to research by YouGov for the People’s Partnership. Even more striking, research from the Pensions Policy Institute sponsored by the Pension Attention campaign shows that more than £31 billion is sitting in unclaimed inactive or lost pensions – an increase of 60% since 2018.
Everyone agrees that good visibility, early on, gives savers the best chance of meeting their pension goals. Yet, when I embarked on tracing my own pensions, I was surprised by how many obstacles I needed to navigate. Pension providers could help clear the path for pension tracers.
My personal pension hunt
Before joining Quietroom, I worked for Which?, the consumers’ association. A couple of years ago, I took part in an eye-opening Which? pensions tracing investigation run by fellow journalist Grace Witherden. Along with three other volunteers from Which?, I agreed to try to find my pension pots from my previous employers.
Between us, we reckoned we had up to 13 different pension pots to investigate. None of us had reviewed our retirement savings before. Still, as a journalist who had spent years advising readers on consumer issues, I assumed that I’d be able to handle this without too much trouble.
One success, two dead ends
I had 3 potential pensions to trace: 1 more recent pension that I knew for sure existed, plus 2 maybes from jobs I’d held early on in my career.
My first attempt went well: I sorted through my paperwork, found my annual statement and followed my ex-employer’s instructions for creating an online account. This gave me access to a user-friendly dashboard with all the information I was looking for and more. So far, so good.
Onto the second. This one had no publicly available contact details for their pension scheme that I could see. Eventually, I used a contact form to reach their customer service team. Thankfully, customer service passed my query onto HR, who responded to me and resolved my query (confirming I had no pension with them).
The third employer on my list to contact was a retailer that had gone into administration, so for this I turned to the government’s Pension Tracing Service. The service is designed to be simple to use: answer a few basic questions and type in the name of the employer you’re looking for. In many instances, I have no doubt that this will take you exactly where you need to go. Unfortunately, there were so many entries for my old employer – 8 different variations on the same name, and multiple listings for each – that they spanned a whole two pages.
After clicking around the various records, I located what looked like the most relevant, up to date address and phone number for the scheme. I tried calling a few times, but never succeeded in having a conversation about my (possible) pension. In the end I gave up, still as much in the dark as I had been at the beginning. To this day, writing them a letter remains on my to do list.
Hidden hurdles to pension tracing
As Which? reported at the time, my fellow volunteers faced similar challenges, such as:
- needing to write a letter to confirm a change of address
- going round in endless login reset loops – needing to log in to change contact details, but needing contact details to log in
- staff struggling with queries
- being told to send pensions queries to the recruitment team
- emails going unanswered
The only participant who found the exercise painless was the one who had dutifully retained all her paperwork.
Pensions tracing needs to be more accessible
From my perspective, navigating the maze of pension administration isn’t just about inconvenience: it’s an accessibility issue. Consider someone with limited mobility – posting a letter becomes a significant challenge. For someone with hearing impairments, being obliged to use the telephone could be anxiety-inducing and lead to important information being missed. For retail workers – my former colleagues – making phone calls during standard business hours, when they’re likely to be on the shop floor, simply isn’t an option.
Pension pots needn’t be elusive beasts. Plenty of pension providers get it right, but others could improve by:
- making contact details easy to find
- offering multiple communication channels to accommodate different needs. Don’t assume everyone wants to, or is able to, phone, write or send an email
- ensuring each advertised communication channel is genuinely open, and that staff are adequately trained to respond
- following the Pensions Regulator’s Code of Practice around communications and disclosure
We need the pensions dashboard urgently
There is light at the end of the tunnel. I’m personally looking forward to the Pensions Dashboard making all of this easier. The dashboard, long campaigned for by Which?, will allow users to see all their pensions, including state pension, in one place. While this won’t be a panacea to the problem of small pots – consumers will still need to decide, for example, whether or not to consolidate their pots – it should put an end to deferred members having to turn into amateur detectives to track down their lost pots.
After being pushed back a few times, the pensions dashboard should be launched in October 2026. For me, this can’t come soon enough.
