Useful Links
For details of organisations linked with The Pensions Archive Trust:
London Archives – the local authority archive repository for the City of London Corporation and many other London-wide organisations. The Pensions Archive’s collections are housed at London Archives’ repository in Clerkenwell, and the Archivist is also based at London Archives.
Bayes Business School City of London – part of the City University London, and one of the premier business schools in the world, Bayes Business School (formerly Cass Business School) and City University have a long standing link with the Pensions Archive Trust.
Occupational Pensions Defence Union – OPDU provide insurance cover and risk management services to pension fund trustees, administrators and employers to protect pension schemes.
If you are trying to trace a former employer to ascertain pension details:
The Pension Tracing Service – the Pension Tracing Service have a database of over 200,000 pension schemes and may be able to help you trace your pension.
Department of Work and Pensions – the Department for Work and Pensions is responsible for UK Government welfare and pension policy. It operates The Pensions Service to provide information on state pensions, benefits and retirement provision.
Pension Protection Fund – the Pension Protection Fund pay compensation to members of eligible defined pension scheme, when there is a qualifying insolvency event in relation to the employer and where there are insufficient assets in the pension scheme to cover Pension Protection Fund levels of compensation.
For advice on different pension options:
Pensions Ombudsman – An independent organisation set up by law to deal with pensions complaints
Money and Pensions Service – An independent body sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions to help people improve their financial wellbeing and make sure they can access high-quality money and pensions guidance and debt advice.
Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association – the representative body for occupational pension funds and those managing pension funds in the UK.
For details of archives which hold records concerning the State Pension and other UK Pensions Legislation:
The National Archives – the UK government’s official archive, who also provide guidance on recordkeeping to government departments and provide advice to the information management sector. The National Archives provide research guides on Royal Navy and First World War pensions, available on their website alongside their online catalogue.
The Parliamentary Archives – provide access to the archives of the House of Lords, the House of COmmons and to other records relating to Parliament. The Parliamentary Archives contain records of Parliamentary debate surrounding the establishment of the Old Age Pensions Act (1908), as wll as the original Act itself.
For information on other business archives:
The Business Archives Council – the Business Archives Council provide useful guidance for the management of business archives, and aim to promote the preservation of business records of historical importance and encourage interest in the history of business in Britain.
For access to lists of records relating to pension schemes held at other UK archival institutions:
Discovery is The National Archives’ catalogue. It provides a way to explore archival collections from The National Archives and over 2,500 archives across the UK.
Discovery has been designed to host, search and display the many different databases and datasets held both at The National Archives and other archives. It provides a single point of online access to catalogue and organisational data from across the archive sector and also incorporates the following data:
- NRA, the National Register of Archives
- ARCHON, directory of archives
- A2A, Access to Archives
- MDR, Manorial documents register