The Pension Tracing Service: free, safe and how it works

Yes, the Pension Tracing Service is free. It is run by DWP and gives you a scheme's contact details, not your pension balance.

That is DWP's own description: it called the service "a free service" in the news story announcing its new website, published on GOV.UK on 9 May 2016. What it hands back is narrow: contact details for a pension scheme, not a statement of what you hold. For help weighing up whatever turns up, this page's form leads to an FCA-authorised adviser ringing you, and there is no fee for that call.

This page is about the service itself: what it costs, how to reach it, what it returns, and how to be sure you are using the genuine one. Working out which employers and providers to look for in the first place is covered in finding a lost pension.

Is the Pension Tracing Service free, and who runs it?

Yes, it is free, and it is DWP's service. The 2016 launch story is published on GOV.UK by the Department for Work and Pensions, and the postal address GOV.UK gives for requests today is The Pension Service, Post Handling Site A, Wolverhampton, WV98 1AF. Online, the service goes by the name Find pension contact details.

On cost, DWP's words in that announcement were: "The Pension Tracing Service is a free service that enables people to search a database of more than 320,000 pension scheme contact details." The pensions minister quoted in the same story urged anyone who thought they might be missing out to "use the free online service at www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details", which is still the service's GOV.UK address. Treat the 320,000 as a May 2016 count, not a current one; the free description is about the lookup itself.

It was not a little-used service even then. The same release put tracing requests at 169,000 in 2015/16, counting the online service, agent referrals, phone and post together, and estimated £400 million in unclaimed pension savings at the time. Both are DWP's 2016 figures, not today's.

How to use the Pension Tracing Service: online, by phone or by post

Online, go to GOV.UK, Find pension contact details and choose Start now; GOV.UK notes that the online service is also available in Welsh. The search itself runs at findpensioncontacts.service.gov.uk, and before you begin it asks you to confirm you will only use it to get contact details for a pension you have had, or one someone else may have where you have their permission. (GOV.UK page and the service's declaration screen, both read on 22 October 2026.)

By phone, GOV.UK gives 0800 731 0175, Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm, and +44 (0)191 218 7777 from outside the UK. If you cannot hear or speak on the phone, Relay UK is 18001 then 0800 731 0175, and a British Sign Language video relay service is offered too. GOV.UK links to its call charges page beside the numbers, worth a glance before ringing from a mobile. By post, write to the Pension Service address above.

What you need to have ready

Only a name: an employer's or a pension provider's. The search covers your own workplace or personal pension scheme, and someone else's if they have given you permission. If the person has died, tracing the pensions of someone who has died covers the extra steps.

An old Prudential pension, for instance, is looked up the same way as any other, by entering the provider's name, or the employer's if it came through a job. If you have no name to go on, or a firm has since merged or been renamed, the ways of finding one are in finding a lost pension.

What you get back from a trace: an address, not a balance

You get where to write or ring. GOV.UK is plain that the service cannot confirm whether you have a pension at all, or put a value on one, and that it only works when you supply an employer's or provider's name. The phone and postal routes carry the same limit, which GOV.UK repeats beside the number. So the service is a directory of scheme contacts, not a search of your own records.

DWP's 2016 description of the online search fits that: people enter their former employers' details and are given contact details for pension schemes they may have paid into. Whether a particular scheme holds a record for you is a question for that scheme, so the next step is to write to it or ring it. State Pension questions are separate: the UK State Pension guide covers the basics, and finding a lost SERPS pension covers the old additional State Pension.

If several schemes come back to you, you may end up holding statements that look nothing alike. Reading them side by side, against the income you want in retirement, is the kind of job an FCA-authorised adviser takes on; that conversation is free when you ask for it through the enquiry form here. Free guidance remains open to you too: MoneyHelper, or for anyone over 50 a Pension Wise appointment, which the FCA notes costs nothing.

Is the Pension Tracing Service legit? How to know you are using the real one

Yes. It is a government service run by DWP, and the genuine one is reached through GOV.UK: the guide at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details sends you to the search at findpensioncontacts.service.gov.uk, whose first screen carries the GOV.UK name and the heading Find pension contact details. Starting from that GOV.UK page, rather than from a search result or an advert, means you know where you have landed.

A polished website proves little on its own. The Pensions Regulator warns that pension scammers "are often convincingly professional, with credible websites, testimonials and materials that are hard to distinguish from the real thing". (The Pensions Regulator, Avoid and report pension scams, read 22 October 2026.)

Phone calls deserve the same care. The FCA says: "If you get a call out of the blue (a cold call) about your pension, the safest thing to do is hang up. It’s illegal and probably a scam." That holds even when the caller claims to be from the Pension Tracing Service or DWP; the regulator also warns that some scammers pose as acting for the FCA or MoneyHelper. If you want the real service, ring the number printed on GOV.UK. To report a suspected scam to the regulator, ring 0800 111 6768. (FCA, Pension scams, last updated 19/01/2026.)

Checking a firm before you deal with it

If any firm contacts you about your pension, look it up first. The FCA's guidance (last updated 22/09/2026) says to use its Firm Checker before you buy a financial product or service, and that it "will tell you if the firm is authorised and has our permission to sell you the product or service". The regulator's advice is to deal only with firms it has authorised or registered. It also warns about clone firms, which copy genuine authorised ones, and says to "make sure the contact details you’ve been given for the firm, match those on the Firm Checker." The tactics are set out at more length in our pension scams guide, and the checks a scheme makes before money moves in transfer rules and red flags.

Pensions dashboards and the Pension Tracing Service

Pensions dashboards are meant to bring a person's pensions information together online. DWP's guidance on connecting schemes (published 25 March 2024, last updated 6 August 2025) says they will show pensions information, State Pension included, free and in one place, and will also help people find pensions they have lost track of or forgotten. It says every scheme and provider in scope must by law be connected, and ready to respond to requests for information, by 31 October 2026 at the latest.

Being connected is not the same as being open to the public. Under the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 (regulation 4), public use begins on a date the Secretary of State sets by notice, issued at least six months ahead; before then, only people the Money and Pensions Service invites, directly or through others, to help test or improve the service can use one. Those are the positions on the dates given. The Pensions Dashboards Programme and MoneyHelper are where to check whether a dashboard is open to you now, and what the pensions dashboard is follows its progress.

Until you can use one, the Pension Tracing Service remains the free route to a scheme's contact details. The two do different jobs: the tracing service returns a directory entry for a name you give it, while a dashboard is designed to show information held about you.

More about the Pension Tracing Service, answered

Is the Pension Tracing Service run by HMRC?

No. It is a Department for Work and Pensions service: DWP announced its website in 2016, and postal requests go to The Pension Service in Wolverhampton.

Does the Pension Tracing Service cover Scotland and Northern Ireland?

nidirect, the Northern Ireland government's website, sends people who have lost the contact details of a workplace or personal pension to this same GOV.UK service. For a scheme based in Scotland, ask the line on 0800 731 0175 how it is handled; or request a call-back and have an FCA-authorised adviser explain the position, free.

How long does pension tracing take?

Online, DWP said in 2016 that the new service "provides trace results immediately". For a phone or postal request, ask the line how long it will take. How quickly a scheme then replies to you is down to that scheme.

Is the Pension Tracing Service any good?

It does one job: it returns contact details. DWP said at launch that testing of the new website found 83% of users either satisfied or very satisfied; that is DWP's own May 2016 figure, not a current rating. How useful it is depends on having the right employer or provider name to start with.

How much does it cost to find lost pensions?

Using the Pension Tracing Service costs nothing, on DWP's own description. The step after it, contacting each scheme yourself, is set out in finding a lost pension, and the PensionBee question is answered in can PensionBee find my pensions?

Where to start

Write down the employers and pension providers you can remember, get their contact details from the GOV.UK page, the phone line or a letter, and then contact each scheme yourself. Finding a pension does not commit you to moving it. If combining pots ever comes up, the pros and cons are in should I combine my pensions?, and the mechanics in our guide to moving a pension to a new provider.

Once you have the contact details, bigger questions about retirement income are a conversation for an FCA-authorised adviser. The enquiry form shown on this page books one at no cost to you. Treat any cold call or unexpected offer with the FCA checks above.

Sources, accessed 22 October 2026 unless dated: GOV.UK, Find pension contact details and the service's declaration screen; DWP press release, New Pension Tracing Service website launched (9 May 2016); nidirect, Find a lost pension; The Pensions Regulator, Avoid and report pension scams; FCA, Pension scams (last updated 19/01/2026) and How to check a firm or individual is authorised (last updated 22/09/2026); DWP, Pensions dashboards: guidance on connection: the staged timetable (last updated 6 August 2025); the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022, regulation 4.