Pension Tips

How to Find Your SERPS Pension: A UK Guide (2026)

If you worked in the UK as an employee between 1978 and 2016 and were contracted out of SERPS at any point, there's a real chance you have a private pension pot somewhere holding your contracted-out NI rebates — and a real chance you've lost track of it.

This guide walks through the realistic step-by-step process for finding a SERPS pension in 2026: what HMRC holds, how to request your contracted-out records, how to identify the scheme that's holding your money today, and what to do if the scheme has been wound up or rebranded.

If you'd rather hand the chasing over, start a free pension trace. Otherwise, work through the steps below.

What you're actually looking for

When people say "find my SERPS pension", they usually mean one of two different things:

Your State Pension entitlement based on SERPS contributions — held by the DWP. Check this at gov.uk/check-state-pension. (See our SERPS Pension Check guide for the step-by-step.)
A private pension pot that received your contracted-out SERPS NI rebates — held by a private/workplace pension provider. This is what people usually mean when they ask "how do I find my SERPS pension?", and it's what this guide covers.

If you've already done step 1 and want to track down a contracted-out pot, you're in the right place.

Step 1: Were you actually contracted out?

The first question to answer. If you were never contracted out of SERPS, there's no separate "SERPS pot" to find — your entitlement is part of your State Pension and shows on your forecast.

You were probably contracted out at some point if:

You were an employee in the UK between 1978 and 2016
You were a member of a workplace pension scheme during that time
Your old payslips or pension annual statements mention "contracted out", "COSR" (Contracted-Out Salary Related), "COMP" (Contracted-Out Money Purchase) or "APP" (Appropriate Personal Pension)
Your State Pension forecast shows lower entitlement than expected (often a sign of contracted-out adjustments)

The Gov.UK tool at gov.uk/contracted-out/check-if-you-were-contracted-out asks a few questions to confirm.

If you weren't contracted out, this guide doesn't apply — see How to find my pensions for general pension tracing instead.

Step 2: Request your HMRC contracted-out records

HMRC holds records of every contracted-out NI rebate paid in your name, including which scheme administrator received the rebates.

To request these directly:

Write to: HM Revenue and Customs, National Insurance Contributions and Employer Office, BX9 1AN

Include:

Full name (and any previous names)
Date of birth
National Insurance number
A clear request for "details of any contracting-out periods and the schemes that received my contributions"
Your signature and current address

HMRC won't release these records by phone or email — they post them to your registered address for data protection. Turnaround is typically 4–8 weeks.

Faster route: a regulated pension tracing service can request your contracted-out records on your behalf with the appropriate authorisation.

Step 3: Identify the scheme that holds your money today

Once you have the names from HMRC, the next challenge is identifying who currently administers each scheme. Many of the original providers and trustees have been acquired, merged or rebranded over the past 30+ years.

Common patterns:

Phoenix Group has acquired vast numbers of legacy contracted-out books — Pearl, NPI, Eagle Star, Sun Life of Canada, AMP, London Life, ReAssure (which itself absorbed L&G's mature savings book), and more
Aviva absorbed Friends Provident, Friends Life, AXA Sun Life and others
Aegon acquired Scottish Equitable — old Scottish Equitable contracted-out pensions are now Aegon
Royal London acquired Scottish Life
Lloyds Banking Group / Scottish Widows absorbed Clerical Medical and several bank-distributed schemes

If the scheme name HMRC gives you is not the current administrator, the Government's Find Pension Contact Details tool at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details can help you trace through the chain. Or you can search the original scheme name on Companies House to identify the successor.

For a wider directory of UK pension providers and the schemes they've absorbed, see our pension provider directory.

Step 4: Contact the current scheme administrator

Once you've identified who holds your money today, contact their bereavement... sorry, member services team and ask for a current valuation of any pot held in your name.

You'll typically need to provide:

Your full name (and any previous names)
Date of birth
National Insurance number
Approximate dates of the contracted-out period
Any old policy or member numbers (if you have them)

The scheme will verify your identity and send you a current statement. For defined-contribution pots (most contracted-out money), you'll get a cash value. For defined-benefit schemes (rarer for contracted-out money), you'll get an annual income figure.

What if the scheme has been wound up?

A scheme that has formally wound up transfers its members' benefits either to a successor scheme or to Section 32 buyout policies in each member's name (typically with a major insurer). The original wind-up trustee leaves a paper trail at The Pensions Regulator, and the Find Pension Contact Details tool will usually point you in the right direction.

If a wound-up scheme failed (for example because the sponsoring employer became insolvent and the scheme couldn't meet its liabilities), the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) may have taken on the benefits.

What if HMRC has no record of contracting out?

Possible reasons:

You weren't actually contracted out — the State Pension forecast is the full picture for you
Your records are held under a different NI number (rare but happens — check NI number variants)
The contracted-out scheme is so old that the records are partial — HMRC's data quality on the very early SERPS era (1978–1990s) is patchy in some cases

If HMRC's response comes back empty but you're confident you were contracted out (e.g. old payslips clearly say so), the next step is to contact the original scheme directly using the employer name — the scheme's own records are the ultimate source of truth.

How long does it take to find a SERPS pension?

A realistic timeline:

HMRC contracted-out records: 4–8 weeks (postal)
Identifying the current scheme administrator: a few days (using the Gov.UK tool and Companies House)
Contacting the scheme and getting a current valuation: 2–4 weeks per scheme

Total: typically 2–3 months for a single contracted-out pot, longer if you have several or if the schemes have been wound up / acquired multiple times.

A regulated tracing service can shorten this by running multiple requests in parallel and using established channels with HMRC's third-party administrator.

How the Pension Tracing Service® finds SERPS pensions

The work above — write to HMRC, wait 4–8 weeks, identify the current scheme, contact the administrator, request a valuation — is precisely what we do for you. Three steps:

You sign up online with your name, DOB, NI number and rough work history during the contracted-out era
We request your HMRC contracted-out SERPS records (with your authorisation), trace through to the current scheme administrators, and contact each for a current valuation
We deliver a single report listing every SERPS pot in your name and what each is worth today

Tracing is free. A one-off 1% fee only applies if you decide to consolidate the pots into a new plan. If we find nothing, or can't improve on what you've got, you pay nothing.

Find my pension →

Find my SERPS pension FAQs

How do I find my SERPS pension online?

There's no single online tool that returns "your SERPS pension". The closest is your State Pension forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension, which shows your overall State Pension entitlement (including any SERPS / S2P built up between 1978 and 2002). For a contracted-out SERPS pot in a private pension, you need to combine HMRC contracted-out records with provider lookups — there's no online "SERPS finder" that does this end-to-end.

What's the fastest way to find a SERPS pension?

Use a regulated tracing service to handle the HMRC contracted-out records request and the provider chase in parallel — typically a few weeks rather than a few months. DIY is free but slower because you wait on each step in series.

Can I find my SERPS pension on gov.uk?

You can find your State Pension entitlement at gov.uk/check-state-pension. You can find scheme contact details at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details. Neither tool tells you whether you have a contracted-out SERPS pot — for that, you need HMRC's contracted-out records (postal request).

What happened to my SERPS pension if I was contracted out?

Your contracted-out NI rebates went into a private or workplace pension scheme. The pot still exists — UK pensions don't expire — but the original scheme administrator may have changed (Phoenix, Aviva, Aegon, Royal London and Standard Life have absorbed many old contracted-out books).

What if I can't remember the name of my contracted-out scheme?

HMRC's records will name the scheme that received your rebates. Request your contracted-out records by writing to HMRC's National Insurance Contributions Office at BX9 1AN, or authorise a regulated tracing service to request them on your behalf.

Is the Pension Tracing Service® a Government service?

No. The Pension Tracing Service® is a private, FCA-authorised firm (FCA number 914746) that has been trading since 2012. The UK Government runs separate free tools at gov.uk/check-state-pension and gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details. We are not affiliated with the Government.

Does it cost anything to find my SERPS pension?

No. Tracing is free. We only charge a one-off 1% fee if you decide to consolidate the SERPS pot (and any other pensions) into a new plan, with 0.82–0.86% annual management thereafter. If we don't find anything or can't improve on what you have, you pay nothing.

Can I trace a SERPS pension for a deceased relative?

PTS doesn't trace pensions for deceased relatives — see our bereavement guide which points to the providers and Government services that can help.

What if I was contracted out for only a few years?

It still counts. Even a couple of years of contracted-out NI contributions could equate to a few hundred to a few thousand pounds in a private pension pot today, depending on the scheme. The pot is worth finding.

In short

Finding a SERPS pension is a four-step process: (1) confirm you were contracted out, (2) request HMRC's contracted-out records, (3) identify the current scheme administrator, (4) contact the scheme for a current valuation. It takes 2–3 months DIY. Or we'll do the whole thing for free.