How to find a lost or old civil service pension

To find a lost civil service pension, check you qualified, then give the scheme your details. The Pension Tracing Service covers other employers.

Tracing an old civil service pension is mostly paperwork: proving you were a member, checking the service rules for the years you left, and getting the right details to the right office. If old payslips or a department name turn up and you are unsure what they mean for your retirement, an FCA-authorised adviser can discuss them on a free call; the form on this page needs just your contact details.

How do I find my old civil service pension?

The Civil Service Pension Scheme's own guide to unclaimed pensions starts with a warning: it may not hold your record if you worked for an employer that was not part of the Civil Service, did not build up enough qualifying service, or if your former employer never sent your pension information. So the first job is to confirm that you really were a member.

The scheme suggests looking through old papers for any of these:

• a pension statement
• a payslip
• a letter from your employer
• a document from HMRC showing you paid into a civil service pension

If one of them confirms membership, the scheme's next step is to contact it with the details listed further down; the service rules below help if you are unsure you stayed long enough. If you cannot tell whether a job counted as the Civil Service at all, the employer's name is the key to everything else, so write down every department, agency or office you remember working in, with rough dates.

Which civil service pension do I have, and did I qualify for one?

Whether you built up a pension depends on when you left, how long you worked in pensionable service and your age when you left. The scheme sets out the rules by period. For employment ending on or after 1 May 2012, the scheme says you qualify if you "had more than 2 years’ qualifying service", transferred a personal pension into the Civil Service scheme, or had a previous Civil Service pension that was preserved. The same tests apply to leaving dates from 6 April 1988, with an extra route for a woman who left in the tax year she turned 60 if she left before 6 April 2006.

Earlier leavers face different tests, according to the scheme:

• Employment ended before 1 June 1972: more than 10 years' qualifying service and aged 50 or over when you left, and both conditions must be met.
• Employment ended between 1 June 1972 and 5 April 1988: more than 5 years' qualifying service, or a woman who left on or after 6 April 1978 in the tax year she turned 60.

Fall short and the scheme says: "We will not have a pension record for you." A 1972 to 1988 leaver with fewer than 5 years should have received a payment on leaving; a 1988 to 2006 leaver with fewer than 2 years who did not transfer benefits in may have had a refund or a transfer to another scheme. Which of the scheme's sections your record sits in is a separate question; how much civil service pension you get explains how the sections differ, and a pension statement or a reply from the scheme is where yours will be named.

Who do I contact to trace a civil service pension?

If you know you paid into a civil service pension, the scheme asks you to get in touch with five details so it can check its records and reply with the next steps:

• your full name, including any previous names
• your date of birth
• your National Insurance number
• the name of your former civil service employer
• the dates you worked for them

Start from the scheme's guide to finding your unclaimed pension on the Civil Service Pension Scheme website and use its contact route. Keep a note of what you sent and when.

Claiming a pension the scheme finds, and what leaving did to it, are covered in leaving the civil service.

What if the scheme says it cannot find my record?

One reason the scheme gives for a missing record is that a former employer did not send it your pension information. If the scheme confirms you qualify but cannot find your record, it asks you to request a written record of your contracted-out service from HMRC, by calling 0300 200 3500 or writing to National Insurance Contributions and Employer Office, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AN.

The scheme explains why HMRC holds it: from 1978 to 2016, members of the civil service pension arrangements were contracted out of the State Second Pension (S2P), paying a lower rate of National Insurance. You can ask for the record with a Subject Access Request.

Then comes a step people get wrong. You send the HMRC record to your former employer and ask them to pass your pension information to Civil Service Pensions: the scheme says "Do not send it directly to Civil Service Pensions yourself." Include the same five details. Once the employer supplies the information, the scheme says it will contact you with your pension details. If your old employer has since closed or merged, an adviser can explain how to chase it, free of charge, once you ask through the short enquiry form.

When the job was not civil service: using the Pension Tracing Service

The Pension Tracing Service is useful if your job was with a different organisation, for instance the Post Office, police, social services, a local authority or the NHS. The scheme says for those you will need that organisation's pension administrator, whose details the free online service can find. Is the Pension Tracing Service free has more, and finding a lost pension covers private and workplace pots.

GOV.UK is plain about its limits: "This service will not tell you whether you have a pension, or what its value is." You need "the name of an employer or a pension provider to use this service", and you can look up your own scheme or someone else's if you have their permission. You can also ask by phone on 0800 731 0175 (Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm) or by post to The Pension Service, Post Handling Site A, Wolverhampton, WV98 1AF.

So the tracing service is a signpost rather than a civil service pension finder: it gives you a contact; the scheme, after checking its records, tells you what you hold. For other public schemes see finding a lost NHS pension.

Watch out for unsolicited offers to find or move it

A lost pension can attract unwelcome attention. The FCA says: "Pension scams often involve attractive offers that aim to persuade you to transfer your pension pot (or release funds from it)." Tracing a civil service pension needs only your own records, HMRC and the scheme, so anyone who contacts you out of the blue offering to find it for a fee, or to move it, deserves caution. Check the FCA's page on pension scams first. Civil service pensions also face legal limits on where they can go, set out in transferring a civil service pension out.

Common questions when tracing a civil service pension

Do I have a civil service pension if I only worked for the civil service for a year?

Probably not. Leavers from 6 April 1988 needed more than two years' qualifying service, a personal pension transferred in or an earlier preserved pension (or, up to 5 April 2006, to be a woman leaving in the tax year she turned 60). The scheme says a 1988 to 2006 leaver who fell short may have received a refund or transferred benefits to another scheme.

Can I trace a civil service pension for a relative?

GOV.UK allows a look-up of someone else's scheme with their permission. After a death the route differs: see tracing a deceased person's pensions and civil service pension on death.

Can I trace a civil service pension if I have changed my name?

Yes. The scheme asks for your full name including any previous names, both when you first contact it and in what your former employer forwards after the HMRC step, so list every surname you worked under.

Talking your old pensions through

What a traced pension is worth to you depends on its section, your age and your other savings. When the scheme has written back with your record, an FCA-authorised adviser is able to walk through where a preserved civil service pension sits among your other income. Ask for that free conversation with the form on this page; your contact details are all it takes. How to transfer a pension is the general guide, and the pensions dashboard may help you see all your pots later.