If you've changed jobs more than a couple of times in your career, there's a good chance you've left a pension pot behind somewhere. UK research puts the total value of lost UK pensions at £31.1 billion, spread across 3.3 million forgotten pots averaging about £9,500 each. Tracking down what's yours is the single biggest "easy win" most UK adults can give themselves before retirement.
This guide is the practical UK answer to "how do I track my pension?" — what the free Government tools actually do, what your National Insurance number unlocks, and how a pension tracker service handles the chase on your behalf.
You'll see lots of overlapping vocabulary online — track, trace, find, search, locate. They all describe the same underlying process: identifying every pension scheme that holds money in your name and getting a current valuation for each.
The mechanics are the same regardless of the verb you use:
Contact HMRC for any contracted-out SERPS records (NI number-indexed)
Contact the DWP for your State Pension record (also NI number-indexed)
Contact each pension provider or scheme trustee in your work history (looked up by employer)
Cross-reference the results into a single picture
There's no single "pension tracker" tool that does all of this in one click — the records are spread across multiple Government departments and dozens of providers. But the path to track down a pension is well-trodden, and you've got both free Government tools and end-to-end tracing services to choose from.
A common starting question: "Can I track my pension with my NI number?"
Your NI number unlocks two specific records:
State Pension entitlement at the DWP — get your free forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension
Contracted-out SERPS contributions at HMRC — these were redirected into a private pension between 1978 and 2016 if you were contracted out
For everything else (private pensions, workplace pensions at past employers, SIPPs), there is no NI-indexed master database in the UK — those records are held by individual providers and trustees, looked up by member number or personal details. So your NI number alone won't return "every pension you've ever had" from a single tool. It's one input among several.
We cover this in detail in Find My Pensions With My NI Number.
Go to gov.uk/check-state-pension and sign in with GOV.UK One Login. The forecast shows your total State Pension entitlement (including any SERPS / Additional State Pension built up between 1978 and 2002) and any National Insurance gaps you may want to fill. Free, takes 5 minutes.
Pull up your CV or LinkedIn. For each previous job, note rough start and end dates. Almost every UK job since 2012 will have come with an auto-enrolment workplace pension. Many pre-2012 jobs at larger employers had pension schemes too.
The Government's Find Pension Contact Details tool at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details holds records for over 200,000 UK pension schemes. Search by employer name; it returns the current scheme administrator's contact details. Free, no account required.
Phone or write to each scheme. They'll ask for identification (full name, date of birth, NI number, sometimes a member number). Once verified, they'll send you a current valuation.
If you were ever contracted out of SERPS (1978–2016), HMRC holds records of which scheme(s) received your redirected NI rebates. Request these by writing to HMRC's National Insurance Contributions and Employer Office at BX9 1AN. See our SERPS Pension Check guide for the step-by-step.
Once you've got valuations from each scheme plus your State Pension forecast, you've got the full picture of every pension in your name. From there, the decisions about leaving, transferring or consolidating each pot are well-defined.
A few consumer apps include "track" features that scan a limited network of UK providers. They're useful if your pensions happen to be with the providers in their network — but they typically miss older schemes (pre-2000s providers, schemes that have been wound up or acquired) and they don't pull HMRC contracted-out records.
For a comprehensive track — including HMRC, DWP, scheme trustees and providers that aren't in any single app's network — you'll usually need either the patience to call schemes one by one yourself (using the free Gov.UK directory) or a full-service tracing provider that does the whole search end-to-end.
We've been doing this since 2012 (FCA number 914746). The model is built around a free trace, with fees only at the optional consolidation step:
Free to track every pension in your name
Free for our regulated advisers to review what we find
A one-off 1% fee only applies if you choose to consolidate the pots into a new plan
0.82–0.86% annual management on the new plan
No fee if we don't find anything, or if we can't improve on what you already have
Three steps:
You sign up online with name, DOB, NI number, and a rough work history
We contact HMRC, the DWP, providers, scheme trustees and former employers in parallel
You get a single document listing every pot in your name with current values and our recommendations
Combine three things: (1) your State Pension forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension, (2) employer-by-employer lookups via gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details, and (3) your HMRC contracted-out SERPS records by writing to BX9 1AN. A pension tracking service like ours does all three in parallel for free.
Partially. Your NI number unlocks State Pension and contracted-out SERPS records — but not private or workplace pensions, which are held by providers and looked up by member number or personal details. A tracking service uses your NI number alongside your work history to build the complete picture.
Yes. The Government's Find Pension Contact Details tool at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details is free (returns scheme contact details by employer). The State Pension forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension is free. The Pension Tracing Service® also offers a free trace and review — only the optional consolidation step has a fee.
Start with the employer for each old job. Old payslips, P60s and joiner packs often name the provider. If the employer no longer exists, Companies House (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk) will identify any successor company. For schemes that have been wound up, the Find Pension Contact Details tool usually points to the current administrator. Or we'll do the lot for free.
A service or tool that helps you find UK pensions you've lost track of. Some are free directories (like the Gov.UK tool), some are app-based with limited provider networks, and some are end-to-end services that contact HMRC, the DWP and providers on your behalf. The Pension Tracing Service® is in the third category.
A few weeks for a single straightforward pot at a current major provider. Up to a few months for a complex work history with multiple schemes, especially if any have been wound up or acquired by another provider over the years. A tracking service runs requests in parallel and chases providers for you.
You can check your State Pension forecast online (gov.uk/check-state-pension) and look up scheme contact details online (gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details). You can't get a single online tool that returns every pension in your name — those records are spread across multiple Government departments and dozens of providers, with no consumer-facing master database. The Pensions Dashboard programme aims to do this in future but isn't live yet.
You can still track it down with what you do remember. Even just employer names and rough dates are enough to start. HMRC's contracted-out records and providers' own systems will fill in the gaps. UK pensions don't expire, and providers have legal duties to keep records — even a 30-year-old pot is still findable.
No. The Pension Tracing Service® is a private, FCA-authorised firm (FCA number 914746) trading since 2012. The UK Government runs its own free tools at gov.uk — they're separate services. We are not affiliated with the Government.
No. Tracking a private or workplace pension has no effect on your State Pension entitlement. They're administered separately. (If you discover you were contracted out of SERPS during the tracking process, that may explain why your State Pension forecast is lower than expected — but the missing money sits in the contracted-out scheme, not gone.)
If you've been meaning to track down an old pension and never quite got round to it, today is the day. Sign up to the Pension Tracing Service®, give us a few details, and we'll do the chasing on your behalf.
Related: How to Find My Pensions · Pension Finder UK guide · How to Find Pensions From Years Ago · About The Pension Tracing Service®
You can also request contact details from the Pension Tracing Service by phone or by post.
The Pension Tracing Service
Telephone: 0800 1223 170
From outside the UK: +44 (0) 1782 389134
Monday to Friday, 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
Address
The Pension Tracing Service
The Lantern
High Street
Ilfracombe
EX34 9QB
Copyright 2026 by Pension Tracing Service®
The Pension Tracing Service® is a trading style of Millennial Wealth Ltd. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA number 914746). Pinnacle House, 34 Newark Road, Peterborough, PE1 5YD. Registered company number 11557299.
Profile Pensions is a trading name of Profile Financial Solutions Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA number 596398). Registered office: Norwest Court, Guildhall Street, Preston, PR1 3NU.
This service is not affiliated with the Department for Work and Pensions or any government body. When you click to get started, you'll be taken to Profile Pensions to complete your sign-up and begin the Find, Check & Transfer service. Capital at risk: the value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you put in. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may change.
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