Missing Pension Calculator

Estimate what old workplace pensions, personal pensions, SIPPs and final-salary schemes you've left behind could be worth today. It uses the typical contributions, charges and tax relief for the years you were there and shows the result in today's money. An estimate is only ever the first half though: the money doesn't move until the actual schemes are traced and the providers confirm what's really in them.

Note: this tool is for pensions you might have lost track of. It does not estimate your State Pension — that's run by DWP and you can check it directly at gov.uk/check-state-pension.

How these numbers are calculated

Your pay. Enter roughly what you earned at the time. Each year's contributions are brought up to today's prices using UK inflation (ONS CPI from 1989; World Bank UK consumer price series before that), so every figure is in today's money.

Workplace pots (DC). If you don't enter percentages: before auto-enrolment (pre-2012) we use what members of private-sector workplace DC schemes typically paid — 2.8% from you and 6.6% from your employer (ONS Occupational Pension Schemes Survey 2011). From October 2012 we use the auto-enrolment minimums on qualifying earnings: 2% in total to April 2018, 5% to April 2019 and 8% since. If you do enter percentages, they apply to your whole salary, and your share is grossed up for 20% basic-rate tax relief if you tick that box.

Length of service. The year you left minus the year you joined (a job started and finished in the same year counts as half a year).

Charges. 0.75% a year for auto-enrolment default funds from April 2015, 1.0% for the stakeholder era 2001–2015, 1.5% for personal pensions before that, applied every year to the pot.

Growth. Low 3%, Mid 5% and High 7% a year above inflation, before charges. The total uses the Mid figure. An illustrative line based on past UK share returns is also drawn; real funds will have differed.

Final salary and career average (DB). Annual pension = accrual rate × years of service × salary (your pay when you left; for career average schemes this is a simplification). It is increased in line with inflation since you left, within the legal caps for deferred pensions (5% a year for service before April 2009, 2.5% after). It is normally paid from the scheme's pension age. To give one total we also show a rough transfer value of 20× the annual pension plus any automatic lump sum; real transfer values vary a lot, so ask the scheme for a formal one.

This is an estimate, not financial advice. A precise figure can only come from the scheme itself. You can look up a scheme's contact details free via the government's Pension Tracing Service and write to the provider yourself, or have our team run the whole search, contact each provider and chase the replies for you.