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Check 21 of 31 · Pensions

Rule library / Pensions

How do you find an old workplace pension?

Nothing is lost from the pension scheme's side. It is your address that went missing, usually across a house move and an employer that was later taken over.

The Pensions Policy Institute put the total at £31.1bn across 3.29 million pots in 2024, an average of £9,470 each.

Tracing is free through the government's Pension Tracing Service. Pay nobody a percentage or a search fee to do this.

This is 1 of 31 Checks in the ClaimPilot rule library. The whole answer is below, including the free route. Nothing on this page needs paying for.

Estimated

£9,470 is the average lost pot (PPI, 2024)

Effort

45 minutes, then a wait for replies

Deadline

No deadline. The money does not expire.

Last verified

27 August 2026

Estimated ranges are estimates, never promises. The figure you actually receive depends on your own circumstances and on the body you send the letter to.

01

Who this applies to

  • You have worked for more than one employer since October 2012, when automatic enrolment began.
  • You have moved home and did not tell an old scheme your new address.
  • An old employer was bought, renamed, merged or wound up.
  • You have a vague memory of a pension but no paperwork, statement or scheme name.

02

What it is worth

£9,470 is the average across all lost pots, and a pot from a short job will be far smaller (PPI, 2024).

A pot you worked for in your twenties has had decades of investment growth attached to it, which is why old pots surprise people.

The value is unknown until the scheme replies with a statement, so treat any figure before that as a guess.

03

The free route, step by step

You can do all of this yourself, free, today. We are not in the middle of it and we take no share of it.

  1. 01List every employer since your first job, with rough start and end years. Old payslips, P60s and your employment history help.
  2. 02Use the Pension Tracing Service to get current contact details for each scheme. It is free and needs no personal financial data.
  3. 03Write to each scheme with your name, dates of employment, National Insurance number and any previous names or addresses.
  4. 04Gretel also searches lost pensions, dormant accounts and investments free. It is a good second pass, and we get nothing for saying so.
GOV.UK — find pension contact details

04

Evidence you will need

  • A list of past employers with approximate dates
  • Your National Insurance number, which goes to the scheme and never to us
  • Previous names and addresses, especially around the time you left the job
  • Any old payslips, P60s or annual pension statements

ClaimPilot never asks for any of this. The Scan asks about circumstances, not identity, and no letter is pre-filled with data we did not need.

05

What to watch for

  • The Pension Tracing Service gives you contact details only. It does not tell you whether you have a pension or what it is worth.
  • Never pay a percentage of a traced pot. Tracing is free, and a firm that charges for it is charging for a GOV.UK form.
  • Treat any unsolicited call about your pension as suspect. Cold calling about pensions is banned in the UK.
  • Whether to move a traced pot is a regulated decision. We do not advise on it, and no letter in the Pack does either.

06

Sources

Last verified: 27 August 2026. A Check last verified more than 180 days ago is withdrawn from the library until someone checks it again.

That was 1 of 31 Checks. Which of the other 30 apply to you?

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