An online service is available on GOV.UK at www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details to help people find their lost pension funds.

You can use this service to find contact details for:

• your own workplace or personal pension scheme; or
• someone else’s scheme if you have their permission.

Whilst the service won’t confirm if a person has a pension or what its value is it does provide contact details for contacting pension schemes to make further enquiries.

To use this service, the applicant needs to enter their employer’s name or the name of the pension scheme.

Suggestions for finding the name of an historic employer include:

• looking through old paperwork;
• asking former colleagues if they know the employer or scheme name;
• using the search function on the Companies House website as it holds names of all closed and existing companies registered in the UK.

The pension tracing service is a free service. You can also request contact details from the Pension Tracing Service by phone or by post.