A new DWP website has been launched by the Pension Tracing Service to help people more easily and quickly locate their lost pension savings.

There is currently an estimated £400 million in unclaimed pension savings. This is money people have previously saved for their retirement, and the new website will better help people to locate their hard-earned savings.

The new DWP online Pension Tracing Service helps reunite people with their lost pensions, giving details of providers to help people track them down.

Anyone who thinks they may be missing out on any savings can use the free online service at www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details.

You can search for a workplace pension (a pension an employer has set up for you), a personal pension (a pension you have set up yourself), or a civil service, NHS, teacher or armed forces pension.

If you're looking for a workplace pension, you'll be asked for your employer's name. If it's a personal pension, you'll need to enter the name of your pension provider. If it was an NHS, civil service, teaching or armed forces pension, you'll be given a link to contact the specific pension enquiry service directly.

Once you've clicked on the relevant company or pension, you'll be provided with a name, address and possibly email or phone number for the administrator of the pension scheme you may have paid in to.

You now need to write to or call the administrator to see if they can find your pension, and if so, how much it's worth. If you're writing, include as much useful information as you can – in particular your name, date of birth, the rough dates you believe you had the pension and your national insurance number.

Most of my previous employers no longer exist, having gone out of business decades ago... TB

Maybe the database tells you who took over the pension scheme, TB?

HB

Wow guys.

You really should do a bit of checking before you take a link from the DWP site. This is a private mortgage and finance company you are giving your details to, with no affiliation to DWP. This is a huge [problem] and they will hound you for ever.http://static.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/angry.gif

Can you elaborate please, Stevie?

I clicked on the link and ended up on the government website, although I see there's also a private site called the Pension Tracing Service.

HB

Honeybee13 . If you then click on the Gov site to actually start the process, it takes you to a sheet to fill in for the finance company.

Its legit 100% through... & THROUGH!

Ive gone through various options etc...

And the DWP Element is legit because the Wolverhampton mail site is a large processing centre for DWP

So its all good.

Stevie... I would suggest you revise your statement please.

Honeybee13 . If you then click on the Gov site to actually start the process, it takes you to a sheet to fill in for the finance company.

It didn't do that when I tried it. I think you have this wrong Stevieborg. If you use GOV.UK as originally linked by Michael Browne the Pension Tracing Service it takes you to is part of the DWP and entirely legitimate, whether you contact it using the online process, by phone or by post.

Predictably some private companies have tried to create copycat sites with similar names. One of them for example is called Pension Tracing Service UK, whose Disclaimer reveals it is "a trading style" of a mortgage & financial services company and not associated with the DWP. If you've done an online search to find the Pension Tracing Service you could well end up at one of these copycat sites, but you won't if you use the links on GOV.UK

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