Thousands call Pension Tracing Service as savers warned to check for lost pots

The government’s Pension Tracing Service received nearly 274,000 calls over the past five years, as people tried to hunt down lost retirement savings.

The free service lets you enter the name of an employer to find contact details for its pension provider – helping you locate lost pension pots.

Investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, which obtained the figures through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, has warned that the true number could be even higher, as the Pension Tracing Service was merged with another Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) helpline between May and October 2024

Here, Which? explains how you could lose your retirement savings and how to track them down using the government’s free tool.

How do pension pots become lost?

The Pension Policy Institute (PPI) defines a pension as ‘lost’ when the provider administering it is unable to contact the saver who owns it. There are several ways this can happen, including:

• Changing jobs: More people than ever have multiple jobs during their lifetime, often with separate workplace pensions. It’s easy to lose track of an old scheme – especially if you only worked somewhere for a short time.
• Moving house: If you don’t tell your pension provider when you move, statements and important documents will be sent to the wrong address.
• Loss of contact: Without up-to-date details, a provider can’t reach you – and you may eventually forget you had a pension with it. Providers do make efforts to re-establish contact, but they can’t always succeed.
• Provider changes: Pension schemes frequently merge, get taken over or rebrand. If you don’t keep up with these changes, you might not know who to contact about your pot.

Find out more: best pension drawdown providers 2025

How many pensions are 'lost'?

According to the PPI, there could be as many as 3.3m lost pension pots in the UK, with around £31.1bn sitting unclaimed.

On average, each lost pot holds about £9,500, rising to £13,600 among people aged 55 to 75.

The total value of lost pension pots has spiked by 60%, or nearly £12bn, since 2018.

The rise has largely been linked to workplace pension auto-enrolment. As more employees are automatically enrolled into schemes when they start new jobs, those who move roles frequently can end up with multiple small pots scattered across different providers.

Experts warn that the problem could worsen before it improves. Pension tracing platform Raindrop found that less than a fifth of young people aged between 18 and 34 knew exactly where all their pension pots were.

The same proportion admitted to having no idea how much they’d saved for retirement – almost double the figure among those aged over 55. 

• Find out more: how to find old pensions

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4 steps to track down lost pension pots

To find a lost pension pot using the Pension Tracing Service, you need to take the following steps:

1. List all the places you’ve worked

Start by listing every employer you’ve ever had, even if you only worked there briefly – you may still have a pension entitlement. Include any personal pension schemes you set up yourself.

Cross off any employers if you’re certain no pension was ever set up for you, or if you already received a refund of your pension contributions.

Refunds may have been issued if you left a job before April 1975, between April 1975 and April 1988 (if you worked less than five years or were under 26), or since April 1988 (if you worked less than two years).

• Find out more: how defined contribution pensions work

2. Find your pension provider’s name

To use the free Pension Tracing Service, you’ll need to know the name of your employer or pension provider. Look through any old paperwork for references to your pension scheme, provider or administrator – annual statements usually contain this information.

If you can’t find the paperwork, contact your previous employers or ask old colleagues if they remember the name of the provider.

If a former employer has gone out of business, check whether it appears on the Pension Protection Fund’s list of schemes it manages. This means your pension has been transferred to the Fund instead.

• Find out more: how much will I need to retire?

3. Use the Pension Tracing Service

Once you've collected this information, you can use the Pension Tracing Service, which has a database of more than 320,000 workplace and personal pension schemes. 

You can use the Pension Tracing Service through the Gov.uk website or by calling 0800 731 0175.

To use the service, you'll need to provide as much of the following as possible:

• The name of the employer or the pension scheme.
• The address of the employer at the time you worked there.
• When you were employed there (the years).
• Any previous names the employer may have traded under.

It's important to note that the Pension Tracing Service will only tell you the contact details of the pension's administrator and not about the pension pot itself.

Your next step is to contact the administrator directly using the details provided, to find out more about your lost pension pot. 

4. Contact the pension provider 

After getting the contact details from the Pension Tracing Service, contact the pension firm directly. Most have online contact forms or dedicated email addresses.

To confirm your identity, you’ll need to provide details, such as your National Insurance number and ID documents like a passport, driving licence or recent utility bill.

Once the provider verifies you, it can update your personal details and start sending you annual statements again. You can then decide what to do with the rediscovered pot.

• Find out more: pension options: what can I do with my pension pot?

How else can you trace your pension?

The government’s Pension Tracing Service is a helpful free tool, but it can require a lot of information – something not everyone will have to hand, especially if they’ve had many jobs over the years.

In recent years, several private pension tracing services and apps have launched to make the process easier. These tools often handle some of the admin for you, helping track down old providers and identify forgotten pots.

Many of these services are free to use, and some also give you the option to consolidate your found pensions into one place if you choose to. Others may offer a paid ‘tracing-only’ service if you prefer not to move your money, so it’s worth checking the provider’s terms before signing up.

Some of the best-known options include:

• Standard Life (with Raindrop): free tracing service with optional consolidation.
• Aviva: offers a free search tool available to both customers and non-customers.
• AJ Bell: free tracing tool with the option to transfer your pots if you wish.
• Gretel: free platform that helps track lost pensions as well as savings and insurance policies.

Before using a private service, it’s worth starting with the government’s free tool first. If that doesn’t locate everything, these additional options can be a useful next step – just be sure you understand how each one works and whether any fees apply.