The expert ways YOU can track down your lost pension, revealed by SIR STEVE WEBB... who has netted £140,000 worth of missing pots for readers
Reverend Philip Stamp was sure he remembered saving into a pension during his days before the priesthood, when he worked at a brewery in the 1970s.
But when he tried to track the pot of money down ahead of his 65th birthday in 2018, he was told repeatedly that no such pot existed.
The 71-year-old, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, had all but given up hope of finding it.
Married father-of-four Reverend Stamp says: 'I contacted a number of companies that I thought may be administering my pension, such as Diageo Pension Scheme, The Spirit Group and Capita, who administer the old pension plan I had. All of them said they have no record of my pension.
Reverend Philip Stamp was sure he remembered saving into a pension but had given up hope of finding it
'Until I contacted Money Mail I had given up because I had tried everything I could think of.'
Like tens of thousands of savers in Britain, Reverend Stamp hit a brick wall, in large part because his savings were made before the digital age. And, thanks to large books of pension plans being sold from one company to the next over the decades, lost pension savings can be incredibly difficult to find again once you lose track of the records.
In May, Money Mail invited readers who suspect they have lost pension pots to write in with any scraps of information they still have.
We promised to select a handful and use expert techniques - led by former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb - to hunt them down.
Since then, our postbag has been full and we have been inundated with dozens upon dozens of letters, painting a stark picture of just how many savers are missing money that is rightfully theirs.
Sir Steve, who is now partner at consultancy LCP, has taken on 25 readers' cases. And, so far, since we began our investigations, more than £140,000 worth of lost pensions has been tracked down for readers. In the case of one woman, more than £65,000 was found in long-lost funds.
Jessica Beard from Money Mail invited readers who suspected they had lost pension pots to write in so the team could help track them down
Sir Steve says: 'It is clear from speaking to Money Mail readers that the system just isn't fit for purpose and it isn't working. In a world where most of us aren't saving enough for retirement as it is, we can't afford to lose out on what we have got. It can be irritating when you know you saved into a pension but you just don't know what happened to it.'
Pensions are alarmingly easy to lose track of, especially if you have changed jobs, got married or moved home and failed to alert all your old pension providers.
Savers have lost track of close to three million pensions worth a staggering £27 billion in the UK. It equates to just under £9,500, on average, waiting to be claimed.
Reverend Stamp wrote to us and we took up the investigation on his behalf.
The retired Anglican priest was looking for a pension he had saved into in his early 20s during an 18-month stint at Harp Lager in the 1970s. Upon leaving the company, he received a letter informing him he had a deferred pension that would be paid from his 65th birthday on April 4, 2018, and that was administered by Metropolitan Pensions Association.
But in 2018 he found that neither his old employer nor the pensions company still existed.
Within a few weeks, Sir Steve had tracked down the pension, which is estimated to be worth more than £15,800 over the course of Reverend Stamp's retirement.
Sir Steve Webb says: 'It is clear from speaking to Money Mail readers that the system just isn't fit for purpose and it isn't working'
So how did Sir Steve find it?
The first step in any pensions search should be to contact your former employer. It may be easy to track down an old pension if you have some details about it.
For example, if you know the name of the company your pension was invested with, contact it with your plan number, date of birth, National Insurance number and the date your pension was set up.
However, this may not be so simple if, as in Reverend Stamp's case, the company you worked for has closed, merged with others or been taken over or renamed, making it difficult to know which company to contact now.
Companies House, a free online database run by the Government of all UK-registered businesses, can be a good place to find out what happened to your old employer and if it is still trading.
Next stop, because of the type of pension this was, Steve tried the HM Revenue & Customs 'contracted out pensions section', which is a major database that holds information on which pension schemes you paid into.
HMRC will generally have records of who you worked for through its tax database and may be able to give you the company's name. You can apply for the information via the gov.uk website.
You can also look for signs on your National Insurance record with HMRC that you are one of the millions of workers who saved into what is called a 'contracted out' pension scheme, like Reverend Stamp.
This is when your employer paid reduced National Insurance contributions on your behalf and put the money into its company pension instead. Employees who were contracted out will receive a smaller state pension, but a larger sum from their workplace one.
HMRC should hold a scheme reference number and scheme name for any period you paid into one of these pensions. That should be enough for you to hand over to a pension provider to claim your pot.
Contracting out started in 1978 and ended in 2016. As a rule of thumb, most defined benefit workplace pensions, including public service pensions, operated on a contracted-out basis, Sir Steve says.
Once you are sure you were contracted out, you can write to HMRC for details at: PT Operations, North East England, HMRC, NIC&EO, Benton Park View, Newcastle Upon Tyne BX9 1AN, or you can call the contracted out pensions helpline on 0300 200 3500.
In Reverend Stamp's case, Sir Steve says: 'HMRC said that the scheme reference number now links to a pension with Scottish & Newcastle, a brewing company that was bought out by Heineken and Carlsberg in 2008, which should be managed by Capita. So, just to make sure we hadn't missed something, I contacted one of the trustees on the scheme and they asked Capita to have another look.'
Sir Steve contacted one of the trustees of the pension scheme via business social media website LinkedIn. Trustees are responsible for ensuring that the pension scheme is run properly.
He says: 'Trying to contact people on social media can work but it is hit and miss. If you are a trustee, you do the job because you care about people and have a responsibility over their pensions so I would hope they respond.'
It was only after Sir Steve contacted the trustee and that trustee made another enquiry on Reverend Stamp's behalf that Capita acknowledged it had the retiree's pension.
Reverend Stamp, who received a letter from Capita confirming that the pension had been found, says: 'It is frustrating that it is only Steve's tenacity that got them to accept liability. I wrote to them several times over the years and they denied any knowledge of my pension.'
The pensioner has missed out on six years' worth of £575 payments. Capital has taken this account and revised the annual payment to reflect these missing years, Reverend Stamp says. Payments worth £792 will be made annually from now on.
The retired priest says: 'I'm absolutely delighted. I realise that this is not a great amount but I only have a small church pension so it would make a big difference to me. It will help with council tax and water bills each year.'
HOW WE FOUND MISSING £65,000 FOR ONE READER
Workers have 12 jobs during their lives on average, many of which will have a different pension. It is therefore very easy to lose track of money set aside for retirement.
This was the case for 52-year-old Stef Barnett from Essex, whose husband Ian wrote in on her behalf.
Stef, who now runs counselling services for a young people's charity, has held several jobs over the span of her career, including as a freight agent at Duforest International freight and an administrator at AJ Entertainment. Over the years, she has changed home address and her name through two marriages and had lost several of her old workplace pensions along the way.
Ian, 64, who is a local authority adult social care worker, says: 'I've worked for a local authority so I know exactly where to go for my pension when the time comes but Stef didn't. We plan to retire in a few years and she can access her pensions from age 55 so we need to find them.'
Sir Steve was able to trace five pensions worth a total of £65,000 in Stef's name.
'We are eternally grateful to Money Mail,' says Ian.
One of the largest pensions was originally managed by Scottish Life, Stef told Steve. He says: 'I happened to know the company turned into Royal London and they identified the policies within a few hours.'
Pension funds are generally held and managed separately from your employer. The money is usually entrusted by your employer to a specialist pension provider or insurance company.
As in Stef's case, modern defined contribution pensions can be trickier to keep track of because pension companies can rebrand and change their name (such as Norwich Union becoming Aviva), or sets of policies are bought and sold.
A handful of insurers are responsible for millions of 'legacy' pension policies because they have bought the right to manage them.
For example, Phoenix Group is now responsible for brands including Standard Life, Reassure, Sun Life, Guardian Financial Services, Barclays Life, Alico, National Mutual and Skandia.
Royal London operates pensions which were sold under brands such as Scottish Life, United Assurance, Refuge Assurance, Royal Liver and Co-op Pensions.
If you have an old policy that was provided by an insurance company that no longer exists, you should be able to search online and find a new provider that has taken on that business, Sir Steve says.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has a helpful A-Z list of different insurance companies and the changes of name they have gone through over the years, which can be found at abi.org.uk/data-and-resources/tools-and-resources/find-lost-pension/.
Sir Steve says: 'Interestingly, because several pots I investigated on behalf of Money Mail readers, including Stef's, were under £5,000, the pension provider is under no obligation to issue annual statements. Many people may feel that their pension is 'lost' because they haven't heard from their pension provider in several years, when it's actually just sitting there and the pension provider does not have to write to you because there is less than £5,000 in the pot.
'But as time goes by and addresses change, and people have no relationship or connection to the provider, the risk of the pensions becoming 'lost' increases.'
Your pension is considered dormant if your pension provider sends letters to you that are returned with an explanation that you no longer live at that address and if you do not touch any of your funds for 15 years.
Once dormant, eventually your money is moved to a central fund, which is put towards good causes through the Big Lottery Fund.
However, it is still possible for you to claim your pension at any time, even if the cash value of your pension has been donated towards a good cause.
KEEP YOUR DETAILS UPDATED
Moving home or changing name and failing to inform pension providers are the most common ways in which people lose touch with their funds.
Elisabeth Allum, 58, from Brentwood in Essex, has for years been searching for an old pension she saved into during her very first job aged 18, when she was a housekeeper for InterContinental on Hyde Park Corner in London between 1984 and 1988.
Elisabeth, who now works on the accounts at her husband's building company, says: 'It was a good job when I was starting out and, when clearing my loft a few years ago, I found the paperwork for a pension I had saved on the job. It said the pension was worth £685 and was due to be paid in March 2026, when I turn 60.
'I tried searching the company name on the Government website but it brought up nothing. The paperwork that I found said that Swiss Life managed the pension so I looked the company up online, but they no longer operate in the UK.'
Sir Steve was able to use the ABI's website to find that Phoenix Group had since taken over the management of the pension.
Phoenix Group confirmed that it held her pension but did not have an up-to-date name or address for Elisabeth. She has sent in her new details and will be paid a one-off lump sum of £685 on her 60th birthday. She says she was disappointed to find the value had not increased with inflation over the years but Sir Steve explains that many older pensions had no such protections.
Sir Steve says: 'Updating your pension provider isn't the first thing you think about when you get married or move house but don't forget to notify them, especially while you still have paperwork or important details.'
There is also a chance that you have already been paid out your pensions. In many cases taken on by Money Mail, Steve found that readers had received a lump sum of their contributions when they left their employer. This was the norm for people who had worked at a company for less than two years prior to 2010.
He says: 'In a number of cases there just wasn't a pension to be found and it can be easy to forget that you received your money back when you left the job.'
Read Sir Steve Webb's full guide to tracking down old pensions at go.lcp.com/lost-pensions.
