When someone dies with a long working life behind them – several employers, a career spanning decades, jobs they took and left without much paperwork – locating all the pensions they built up is one of the harder parts of settling an estate. Many people had pensions with employers they barely remember. Some were enrolled without realising it. The money does not disappear when someone dies, but finding it is genuinely the family’s responsibility, because no one will come looking for you.
The government’s Pension Tracing Service is the starting point. It is free, takes a few minutes online, and can surface contact details for pension schemes going back decades. This guide explains exactly what it does, how to use it, and – critically – what it does not do, which is where most people get confused.
Quick reference:
- Online service: gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details
- Phone: 0800 731 0175 (Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm)
- International: +44 (0)191 218 7777
- Relay UK: 18001 then 0800 731 0175
- What you need: employer name or pension scheme name
- What you get back: contact details for the pension scheme administrator only
What is the Pension Tracing Service?
The Pension Tracing Service is a free government service run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It holds a database of workplace pension schemes and personal pension schemes, and allows anyone to search it by employer name or pension provider name to find out how to contact the scheme.
The service was designed primarily to help people trace their own lost pensions – the ones they contributed to through a job twenty years ago and then forgot about. But it is equally useful for bereaved families, who often know little about the financial arrangements the deceased had made during their working life.
The database covers:
- Workplace pension schemes (defined benefit / final salary schemes, and defined contribution occupational schemes)
- Group personal pension schemes set up by employers
- Personal pension schemes registered with The Pensions Regulator
You can search online at any time, or call during opening hours. The service is free to use and there is no limit on how many searches you can make. There is no requirement to prove your identity or your relationship to the deceased before searching – the service provides contact details only, not account information.
(Source: gov.uk – find pension contact details. Last verified: 14 May 2026.)
What the service does – and what it doesn’t
This is the section that matters most. Many families contact the Pension Tracing Service expecting to find out whether there is a pension and how much it is worth. That is not what the service does.
What it does:
The service gives you the name and contact details of the pension scheme’s administrator – typically a postal address and sometimes a phone number or website. That is all. The database tells you who to contact, not what is in the account.
What it does not do:
- It does not tell you whether the deceased actually had a pension with a particular scheme
- It does not tell you the value of any pension
- It does not confirm that a pension exists at all
- It does not notify the pension scheme of the death
- It does not start a claim on your behalf
A practical example: suppose the deceased worked for a manufacturing company in the 1990s and you believe they paid into the company pension scheme. You search the Pension Tracing Service by that employer’s name and it returns the contact details for the scheme administrator – perhaps a pension management company you have never heard of. You then write to or call that administrator, explain the deceased was a former employee, and ask whether they have a pension record in their name. The administrator will check their records and tell you whether a pension exists. That step – actually establishing whether there is money there – is entirely separate from the Pension Tracing Service.
This matters because there is no guarantee your search will find anything. If an employer’s pension scheme was wound up and merged into another, the result may come back under a different name. If the deceased only worked somewhere briefly and never met the qualifying period for scheme membership, there may be no pension at all. The Pension Tracing Service surfaces contacts; it does not confirm outcomes.
What types of pension it covers and does not cover
| Covered by the Pension Tracing Service | Not covered |
|---|---|
| Workplace pension schemes (defined benefit / final salary) | State Pension – contact DWP directly (see State Pension guide) |
| Workplace pension schemes (defined contribution / money purchase) | Self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) held with investment platforms such as Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, or Fidelity – contact those providers directly |
| Group personal pensions set up by an employer | Current employer's active pension scheme – use Tell Us Once or contact the employer's HR/payroll |
| Old or dormant pension schemes from previous employment | Pension schemes set up after the date of death |
| Occupational pension schemes (including some public sector schemes not covered by specific guides) | ISAs, savings accounts, or investment accounts that are not registered pension schemes |
The State Pension is a separate matter entirely. Stopping it and checking whether the surviving spouse can inherit any entitlement is handled through the DWP Bereavement Service and the Pension Service. See our State Pension guide for how that process works. The Pension Tracing Service is only for tracing workplace and personal pension schemes.
How to use the service
Online
Go to gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details. You will need to agree to a short declaration confirming you are searching for a pension the deceased had and that you are authorised to do so as part of the estate administration.
You then enter either:
- The employer’s name – the company the deceased worked for, as precisely as you can
- Or the pension scheme name – if you have found a pension statement that names the scheme directly
The search will return any matching schemes and their administrator contact details. If your first search returns nothing, try variations of the employer name – the company may have traded under a slightly different name, or the pension scheme may be listed under a parent company or successor organisation.
By phone
Call 0800 731 0175, Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm. The line is free from landlines and mobiles. International callers should dial +44 (0)191 218 7777. Relay UK users can dial 18001 then 0800 731 0175.
When you call, the adviser will search the database on your behalf. Have the following to hand:
- The employer’s name and the approximate years the deceased worked there
- The deceased’s full name, date of birth, and National Insurance number
- Your own name and your relationship to the deceased
By post
You can also write to the Pension Tracing Service. The postal address is: The Pension Service 9, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton WV98 1LU.
Include the employer name, the deceased’s full name and National Insurance number, and a return address.
What you will receive
Online searches return results immediately. Postal requests take longer. In both cases, you receive contact details for the pension scheme administrator – a name and address, and sometimes a phone number or website. From there, the next step is contacting the administrator directly.
After you get the contact details
Finding the administrator’s details is the beginning, not the end. Here is what to do next.
Contact the scheme administrator. Write to or call them and explain the situation. Be clear that you are dealing with the estate of a deceased former scheme member. Give the deceased’s full name, date of birth, National Insurance number, and approximate dates of employment. Ask whether they hold a pension record in the deceased’s name.
What the administrator will ask for. Once they have confirmed a pension exists and begun the claim process, most administrators will ask for:
- A death certificate – either an original or a certified copy. Some administrators accept a scanned copy; others insist on an original, so ask before sending. If you need additional certified copies, you can order them from the register office that issued the original.
- An expression of wish form or nomination – the document the deceased may have completed when they joined the scheme, naming who they wanted to receive the pension death benefit. Not all members complete these.
- Grant of probate or letters of administration – required by some administrators for larger sums, where the benefit is to be paid to the estate rather than directly to a named beneficiary. If you have not yet obtained probate and are unsure whether you need it, see our guide do I need probate?
- Proof of your identity and relationship to the deceased – typically photo ID and evidence of your authority to act (executor status, grant of probate, or a letter from the estate’s solicitor).
Allow time. Most scheme administrators will not rush, and there is no statutory deadline by which they must pay. For straightforward cases where there is a clear nomination and a death certificate, payments can be made within a few weeks. For more complex cases – no nomination, competing beneficiaries, larger sums – it can take several months. Contact the administrator to ask for a timescale once you have submitted the required documents.
A note on the two-year rule. For defined contribution pension death benefits, where the deceased died under age 75, beneficiaries can receive the money tax-free if the scheme is notified within two years of the date of death. The two-year clock starts from the date of death, not from when you contact the scheme. If an estate is complex and other matters are taking time, do not put off contacting pension administrators – the tax treatment may depend on prompt notification. See our pensions overview for the full picture on pension tax treatment.
Other ways to trace a lost pension
The Pension Tracing Service is the most systematic tool available, but it is not the only one. For a complete search, use several approaches in parallel.
Payslips, P60s, and employment records. These are the most reliable source. Payslips show pension contributions deducted from salary, often with the scheme name or the pension provider’s name. P60s list cumulative pension contributions. Old employment contracts sometimes name the pension scheme directly.
Bank statements. Look for regular outgoing pension contributions – payments to named pension providers, or employer pension contribution amounts. The statement descriptions may include the provider’s name or a reference number. This can help identify pensions with Aviva, Standard Life, Scottish Widows, Legal & General, Royal London, Prudential, NEST, or others.
Annual pension statements. Pension providers are required to send annual statements to scheme members. These are usually A4 letters showing the projected value of the pot. Check any filing the deceased kept – even a single old statement with a scheme name and contact address is enough to track down the administrator.
Contact past employers directly. If you know the employer’s name, contact their HR or payroll department. Even if the employer has since been acquired or changed name, staff should be able to direct you to whoever administers the legacy pension scheme. This is particularly useful for defined benefit (final salary) schemes, where the scheme may not appear prominently in any personal paperwork the deceased kept.
Contact known pension providers directly. If you know the deceased had a pension with a specific provider – Aviva, Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity, Standard Life, Royal London, or others – contact that provider directly with the deceased’s name and National Insurance number. For a NEST pension (the government-backed auto-enrolment scheme), see our NEST pension guide. For Fidelity, see our Fidelity guide. For Hargreaves Lansdown, see our Hargreaves Lansdown guide.
The My Lost Account service. This covers bank accounts and building society accounts, not pensions – but if the deceased also had old or dormant accounts, it is worth checking at mylostaccount.org.uk.
MoneyHelper pension tracing. The Money and Pensions Service runs MoneyHelper, a free government-backed guidance service. Their pension tracing guidance is at moneyhelper.org.uk and their general helpline is 0800 011 3797 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm). They can advise on tracing approaches if you are struggling to identify where to look.
HMRC bereavement helpline. Once HMRC is aware that the taxpayer has died, the personal representative can contact the HMRC bereavement helpline to discuss the deceased’s tax affairs. HMRC holds records of pension and employment income, which can give you leads on which pension providers received contributions. This is particularly useful when the deceased had a complex employment history and few records survived. See our HMRC notification guide for how to notify HMRC of the death first.
The April 2027 pension inheritance tax change
From 6 April 2027, most unused defined contribution pension pots will be included in the value of the estate for inheritance tax purposes. This is set out in the Finance Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 18 March 2026, and applies to deaths on or after that date.
The change covers unused pension funds that have not been drawn down or annuitised – the pots that have been building up, sometimes for decades, in dormant or deferred accounts. Death in service lump sums from registered pension schemes are excluded from the change and remain outside the estate for inheritance tax purposes.
Why this makes pension tracing more important. Under the rules that applied before 6 April 2027, a forgotten pension pot held outside the estate carried no immediate inheritance tax consequence – the trustees would pay it to a beneficiary, and that payment was outside the estate entirely. From April 2027, the same pot may form part of the estate’s value and affect whether an inheritance tax liability arises. Even a modest forgotten pension – £20,000 or £30,000 that the family did not know existed – could push a borderline estate over the nil-rate band.
This means thorough pension tracing is now part of proper estate administration, not just an optional extra for larger estates. Every pension found needs to be reported to the personal representative and assessed for its value and tax position.
For a full explanation of how pension death benefits interact with inheritance tax – including the two-year rule, the lump sum and death benefit allowance, and the April 2027 changes in detail – see our what happens to pensions when someone dies guide. If the estate’s overall value may trigger an inheritance tax liability, see our inheritance tax section.
(Source: gov.uk – Inheritance Tax: unused pension funds and death benefits. Last verified: 14 May 2026.)
Summary
The Pension Tracing Service is free, fast, and worth using for any estate where the deceased had more than one employer during their working life. Go to gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details or call 0800 731 0175 (Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm).
You will need the employer’s name or pension scheme name. What you get back is contact details for the scheme administrator – not confirmation that a pension exists, not a balance figure. The next step is contacting each administrator directly, providing the death certificate and the deceased’s details, and following their individual claim process.
Use multiple tracing approaches in parallel: payslips and P60s, bank statements, old pension statements, direct contact with past employers, and the Pension Tracing Service. For the broader picture on what happens to all types of pension after a death, see our pensions overview. For the State Pension specifically – which is handled entirely separately through DWP, not through the Pension Tracing Service – see our State Pension guide.
Phone number and process last verified: 14 May 2026, from gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details. IHT change sourced from gov.uk – Inheritance Tax: unused pension funds and death benefits.