Keeping tabs on multiple small private pension amounts.

[NomoneyNohoney]

I seem to recall asking this a long time ago, but memory and search engines elude me.

My wife is in her early forties, so has approximately 25 years before reaching pension age. Her pattern of employment is taking low-paid jobs, working there for about a year or so, and then moving on to something new.

Each new employer inducts her into their pension scheme, and she leaves with perhaps a few hundreds of pounds having been contributed. In the (approx) 25 years when she is of pension age, who will collate all these trivial pensions and make sure she gets what she is owed?

I see adverts on the Tube for companies who apparently look for consolidating these pensions, for payment of some sort. Is that the only option, or does the Govt. have or intend some sort of reliable way of keeping tabs on them? Does anyone know a way of some automated or reliable way of ensuring these payments don't just drift away?

(I am not very well-informed on this, so if there already is some sort of system in place, please let me know.)

[genou]

I seem to recall asking this a long time ago, but memory and search engines elude me.

My wife is in her early forties, so has approximately 25 years before reaching pension age. Her pattern of employment is taking low-paid jobs, working there for about a year or so, and then moving on to something new.

Each new employer inducts her into their pension scheme, and she leaves with perhaps a few hundreds of pounds having been contributed. In the (approx) 25 years when she is of pension age, who will collate all these trivial pensions and make sure she gets what she is owed?

I see adverts on the Tube for companies who apparently look for consolidating these pensions, for payment of some sort. Is that the only option, or does the Govt. have or intend some sort of reliable way of keeping tabs on them? Does anyone know a way of some automated or reliable way of ensuring these payments don't just drift away?

(I am not very well-informed on this, so if there already is some sort of system in place, please let me know.)

This https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details exists. I'm not sure how much you need to know to retrieve pots from the dim and distant past.

I would look at a more proactive solution. Your wife could open a SIPP, which is in her entire control . Transfer all the existing DC pots into that SIPP. Make it a rule than when she changes employer, she pulls the pot of the job she is leaving into the SIPP . This is a pull process - she tells her SIPP provider where to go and get the pot and they should handle the rest. There could occasionally be a " we can't transfer in that particular holding" issue if the transfers were in specie, but for the amounts involved, I'd avoid that by asking the SIPP provider to take the transfer in cash, and reinvest that when it arrives in the SIPP. Pick a global tracker and keep all the SIPP in that.

[doug2500]

I would suggest the above to be a sensible approach, although it will mean having to take some responsibility for her own money - but then who else should care more about it?

AJ Bell is quite competitive charge wise for modest SIPP's.

Alternatively it might be worth transferring everything to NEST which may be the provider of choice for some future employers anyway. I'm fairly sure you could transfer in but not positive. It would be a simpler option with less choice and probably input.

[mc2fool]

In the (approx) 25 years when she is of pension age, who will collate all these trivial pensions and make sure she gets what she is owed?

Nobody. Either she (or you) must do it, or she can pay someone to do so.

I see adverts on the Tube for companies who apparently look for consolidating these pensions, for payment of some sort. Is that the only option, or does the Govt. have or intend some sort of reliable way of keeping tabs on them? Does anyone know a way of some automated or reliable way of ensuring these payments don't just drift away?

Avoid the tube adverts! The only reliable way is herself. The govt. do have a list of pension schemes and their associated employers, and if you lose track of one you can try https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details but then you must contact the pension scheme itself to find out what they have on you. There is no central database of how much she's contributed or is due.

My strong recommendation to everyone is that you keep everything even tangentially related to pensions forever -- including all payslips, ever.

If she's got lots and lots of small ones she could consider combining them. Here's some articles you may find useful:

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-problems/tracing-and-finding-lost-pensions
https://www.which.co.uk/money/pensions-and-retirement/personal-pensions/switching-providers-and-consolidating-pensions/should-i-combine-my-pensions-a79863g1pm14
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/money-mentor/article/should-i-combine-my-pensions/