Although I’ve a few years yet until I reach state pension age, it’s been playing on my mind that I have a couple of workplace pensions I need to track down. After recently writing about how people can trace their pensions through the Government’s Pension Tracing Service I decided to give it a go myself, but how did I get on?
There are companies out there which will help you track down lost workplace pensions.
However, they will only do this if there is something in it for them, so check how much they are asking for in commission before going ahead.
After filling in a quick questionnaire which determines I’m probably owed less than £30,000, I’m told I don’t fit the criteria.
A little deflated, I decide to see if I’m at least owed the full state pension when I retire.
I’m relieved to discover I should qualify for the full new state pension of £185.15 per week if I work another eight years.
As I have a few years yet before I reach state pension age, that shouldn’t be a problem but if I don’t, it could drop to just £145.74 a week.
Britons are only entitled to the full state pension when they retire if they have 35 years of National Insurance contributions.
It’s worth checking now as there are a few weeks left before the April deadline where people can pay to top it up.
MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis is urging Britons aged 45 to 70 to check their National Insurance (NI) contributions before April 2023 as they may be able to boost their state pension by thousands.
Mr Lewis has worked out it could be possible to turn an £800 payment into a £5,500 top-up on a person’s state pension.
Anyone can check their situation by going to Gov.uk/check state pension
The tool will also tell a person if they can voluntarily top up their contributions to go towards their state pension – it could end up saving you a fortune.
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