What this interactive tool does

Pensions are the single largest pot of unclaimed money in the UK, with billions of pounds sitting in schemes that people have simply lost touch with. It happens easily. You change jobs, move house, and a workplace pension from twenty years ago quietly carries on without you. This interactive tool walks through what you remember about old jobs, employers and providers, then builds a clear plan to track the money down, using the government Pension Tracing Service and the other routes that actually work.

Rather than handing you a long reading list, it gives you a short, ordered set of steps so you can start searching straight away instead of guessing where to begin.

When to use it

Use it if you think there is a pension from a former employer that you have never claimed or transferred, especially from a job you held many years ago. It is just as useful if you had several jobs over a career and are not sure which ones came with a scheme, or if automatic enrolment signed you up to a pension you barely noticed at the time. It is also the right starting point if you are dealing with a deceased relative's affairs and need to check for retirement savings that were never listed in the paperwork. You do not need policy numbers to begin, an employer name and rough dates are often enough.

How it works

You answer a few questions about the type of pension, whose it is, how long ago you lost track of it, and what you can remember about the employer or provider. The tool then sets out which services to use and in what order, including the free Pension Tracing Service at gov.uk, MoneyHelper, and contacting former employers or scheme administrators directly. It explains where to dig for clues, such as old payslips, P60s and contracts, what identification you will need, and the extra steps that apply when the pension holder has died. Nothing you enter is stored, and there is no account to set up.