Pension Tracing Service UK: how it works and what to do next

The Pension Tracing Service is a free government service that helps people find contact details for lost or forgotten pension schemes. It is run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and uses The Pensions Regulator's database of workplace and personal pension schemes.

It does one thing: it gives you a contact address or phone number for a pension scheme. Finding the contact is only the first step. Whether you have a pension with that scheme, and what it might be worth, is something only the scheme itself can tell you.

Who it is for

The service is used in two main situations.

People approaching retirement who have worked for multiple employers and lost track of earlier workplace pensions is the most common. The average person in the UK has around eleven jobs during their working life, which can mean eleven separate pension arrangements to keep track of.

The second situation is executors and families dealing with a deceased person's estate. Pensions are often the largest financial asset a person holds, and they do not always appear in bank statements or correspondence. Tracing them early in estate administration matters.

What the service does and does not do

It does:

• Search a database of more than 320,000 workplace and personal pension schemes

• Provide contact details (address or phone number) for the scheme administrator

• Cover both current and defunct employer names, matching them to the scheme that holds the records

It does not:

• Confirm whether you or the deceased actually had a pension with a given scheme

• Tell you the value of any pension

• Contact the scheme on your behalf

• Cover the State Pension (this is handled separately by HMRC and DWP)

• Cover most public sector pension schemes directly (see below)

How to use it

The online service is at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details. You will need either:

• The name of the employer you worked for (for a workplace pension), or

• The name of the pension provider (for a personal pension)

The service searches its database and returns contact details for relevant schemes. Results are provided immediately online.

If you cannot use the online service, the Pension Tracing Service can also be reached by phone on 0800 731 0175, Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm.

Once you have the contact details, you write to or phone the scheme directly, identify yourself (or your authority as executor), and ask whether a pension exists for the person concerned. The scheme will then carry out its own checks and respond.

What to have ready before you search

For a workplace pension, it helps to know:

• The employer's full name (and any names the business traded under previously)

• Approximate dates of employment

• Any old payslips, P60s, or pension correspondence if available

For a personal pension, the provider's name is usually enough. Old bank statements showing regular payments to an insurance company or pension provider can be a useful prompt.

If you are searching on behalf of a deceased person, have the date of death to hand. You will also need to be able to show you have authority to make enquiries, which typically means providing a copy of the grant of probate or letters of administration once these have been obtained, though some schemes will acknowledge a search request before the grant is in hand.

Public sector pensions

The Pension Tracing Service does not handle most public sector schemes directly. If the deceased worked in the public sector, the relevant scheme can usually be contacted directly:

• NHS pension: NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) at nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-pensions

• Teachers' pension: Teachers' Pensions at teacherspensions.co.uk

• Civil Service pension: Capita at civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk (administration transferred from MyCSP to Capita in December 2025)

• Armed forces pension: Veterans UK at gov.uk/government/organisations/veterans-uk

• Local government pension: the relevant local authority pension fund (there are 86 administering authorities managing 87 funds in England and Wales)

• Police and fire pensions: the relevant force pension administrator

For public sector schemes, you typically need to know which employer the person worked for. The scheme administrator can then confirm whether a pension exists and advise on the process for claiming it as part of an estate.

The State Pension

The State Pension is separate from everything above. It does not pass to a spouse or beneficiary as an inherited asset in the conventional sense, though there are limited circumstances in which a surviving spouse may be able to claim additional State Pension based on the deceased's National Insurance record.

To find out what State Pension the deceased was receiving or entitled to, contact DWP directly, or use the Tell Us Once service at the time of registering the death, which will notify DWP automatically.

For more on Tell Us Once, see our guide on [Tell Us Once: what it covers and what families still need to do].

What happens after you find a pension

Once the scheme confirms a pension exists, the process depends on whether the pension was in payment or not yet drawn.

If the pension was in payment (the person was already receiving it): payments stop at death. Any overpayments since the date of death may need to be returned. Any balance or continuing benefits depend on the scheme rules and whether a spouse's or dependant's pension applies.

If the pension had not yet been drawn: for defined contribution schemes, the position depends on the scheme rules. Most are discretionary schemes, meaning trustees choose who receives the pension pot. Because of this discretion, the pot currently sits outside the estate for inheritance tax purposes and does not pass under the will or intestacy rules. From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds will become subject to inheritance tax. They will not pass through probate, but personal representatives will be responsible for reporting and paying any inheritance tax due, and will be able to direct pension administrators to withhold funds to meet the liability. For defined benefit schemes, the rules vary and the scheme administrator will explain the options.

Nominated beneficiaries: Most pension schemes allow members to nominate a beneficiary on an expression of wish form. Because most schemes are discretionary, trustees are not legally bound to follow the nomination but usually do. The pension is paid directly to the nominated person, outside the estate and without probate. If no nomination was made or the nomination is out of date, the trustees decide who receives the benefit. From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds will become subject to inheritance tax, with personal representatives responsible for reporting and paying any liability. The pension itself still does not pass through probate.

Pension tracing and estate administration

Pensions are one of the most commonly overlooked assets in estate administration, partly because they often sit outside the estate entirely (when a beneficiary nomination is in place) and partly because people change jobs and lose track.

When searching, be aware that a private company called Pension Tracing Service (pensiontracingservice.com) appears in search results and charges for a service that the government provides free at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details. The government service does not charge.

The government's free Pension Tracing Service is one of several tools needed for a thorough estate administration:

• Using the Pension Tracing Service for any employer the deceased worked for

• Checking with NS&I for Premium Bonds and savings

• Using My Lost Account for dormant bank and building society accounts

• Contacting the ABI for lost life insurance policies

None of these services are connected. Each requires separate contact.

Legacy Trail helps families and executors identify and notify accounts across all these categories centrally. Find out more at [legacytrail.co.uk].

Useful links

• Pension Tracing Service (gov.uk): gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

• NHS pension enquiries: nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-pensions

• Teachers' Pensions: teacherspensions.co.uk

• Civil Service Pension Scheme: civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk

• Veterans UK (armed forces pensions): gov.uk/government/organisations/veterans-uk

• ABI lost life insurance and pension policies: abi.org.uk/products-and-issues/topics-and-issues/unclaimed-assets

• My Lost Account (dormant bank accounts): mylostaccount.org.uk