Australians Who Worked in the UK
Worked in the UK? Check whether your age, earnings and employment dates meant a workplace pension was started.
Start your pension search, from $99from $99, Refund if nothing material
Full refund if we find nothing material., no questions asked, you risk nothing by starting.
Over 650,000 Australians live in the UK at any given time. Millions more have worked there over the past 20 years. The average unclaimed pension pot is worth $12,000.
HMRC Pension Tracing Service
Companies House employer records
UK regulatory entitlement determination
Complete request pack at Enhanced Pension Identification Report tier under signed IRA
NEST and auto-enrolment providers (Enhanced Pension Identification Report tier)
Tell us where you worked
Countries, employers, approximate dates, we do the rest.
We search every registry
We search national pension registries, employer records and provider databases. In the Enhanced Pension Identification Report and the Global Pension Identification Report, we also draft a complete request pack for each identified administrator, written and ready for you to send yourself.
Full report within five working days of your intake form
You receive a detailed report of every pension entitlement we identify.
You decide what to do
We provide the information, all decisions about your pension remain yours.
The UK has been one of the most popular working holiday destinations for Australians for decades. Since 2012 a UK employer has had to enrol staff who qualify into a workplace pension automatically. You qualified if you were 22 or over and had not yet reached UK State Pension age, earned at least 10,000 pounds a year, and ordinarily worked in the UK. Your employer could also postpone enrolment by up to three months, so a very short job sometimes never started one. If you were enrolled and did not opt out within the first month, the money stayed in. It usually cannot be refunded and it stays in the pension until you retire, however small the amount. That is exactly the kind of small pot people forget, and it is still there. Whether a particular job left you a pension depends on your age, your earnings and the dates. We check that against the rule rather than assume it.
Source: GOV.UK workplace pension eligibility
NEST (National Employment Savings Trust) is the UK's default auto-enrolment pension scheme. Many Australians on working holiday visas were enrolled in NEST without realising it, contributions were deducted from their pay automatically. These small pots add up over time, and NEST does not proactively contact former members at overseas addresses.
Our Country Pension Identification Report ($99) searches HMRC's Pension Tracing Service, cross-references Companies House employer records, and determines UK regulatory entitlement. At Enhanced Pension Identification Report tier ($499) we prepare a complete request pack for each fund we identify, written and ready to send under your signed Information Request Authority (IRA), so you don't need to navigate UK bureaucracy from Australia.
If you're Australian and also worked in the UK, you may have entitlements in both countries. PensionHunter can search Australian superannuation and UK pensions with our multi-country search. Check our Australia page for more on unclaimed super.
PensionHunter is a research and administrative assistance service operated by Battersea Park Capital Ltd. Registered in England and Wales. Company No. 13326151. Not regulated by the FCA. Does not provide financial advice. All decisions about your pension remain entirely yours. Please consult a qualified independent financial adviser before making any pension decisions.