If you have had multiple employers over the past few years, then it’s more than likely that you’ve had a few pension schemes as well. It’s so easy to lose track of your pension, especially if you have forgotten your details. In fact, in the UK alone more than two-thirds of people have more than one pension to their name. A lot of these people probably don’t have a clue how much their pension is actually worth.
In today’s modern world it’s very rare that someone stays with one employer for their entire career like many of our older relatives will have. There is now a legal requirement in place for all employers to enter their employees into a pension scheme automatically. Here are four simple steps to check your pension contributions.
DWP Pension Tracing Service
You can find all of the information you need by using the DWP pension tracing service. The first thing you will need is the name of your former employer. The system then finds the right contact address for that employer. Using this address, write to them with your name, your current and any previous addresses and your own personal National Insurance details. They will then be able to send your pension details back to you.
Get Some Professional Advice
To help manage all of your pension schemes you may want to turn to a financial adviser for help. They use financial advisor software such as https://www.intelliflo.com/financial-adviser-software to help consolidate all of your pension funds, making them much easier to manage. An adviser can also help you to increase your savings and ensure you don’t lose out on any state benefits when it comes to retirement.
Online Forms
If you haven’t updated your pension scheme for a while, then you will be sent a link to an online form so that you can receive your details. In this form you will be asked any relevant information they need to track down your details.
State Pension Forecast
Anyone can get a forecast of what their state pension looks like through the government website. They look at your National Insurance contributions through the years to see how much the state will be able to give you come retirement age and what age you can retire at too.
