Pensions from prev employers?

[Tickineck]

Im in my early 30s so a long way off yet but someone was talking about pensions and it made me wonder.
I had a pension in a previous job, worked with local council (but not where I live now) I tried to get it transferred to my current council based pension but was outside of the 12 month zone.
What happens to the 1st pension when I reach retirement age?

I also think I had a pension with an employer from when I was around 19, was only there for 2-3 years but whole company was made redundant, how can I find out whether I definitely did have a pension with them?
Name of the company was a very generic type name so could be similar sounding company names out there.

https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

I moved local govt employment many many years ago BUT as my salary in my new job was less didnt move the pension.

The relevant bits are firstly that it was 'indexed linked' which I think under the new arrangements is what happens anyway BUT I also had a retained right to retire at 60, so while you (probably) cant take it at 60 these days you MAY have a retained right to retire earlier

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Thank you both, I will get in contact with the council based pension scheme.
I have tried that website to look for the older pension but the name is a generic type and there are lots listed (think smiths Ltd, smiths services etc)

There is supposed to be a new initiative called Pensions Dashboard starting in 2025 (already been delayed a few years so may take longer) and when it's up you should be able to use it to find all your old pensions www.pensionsdashboardsprogramme.org.uk/

You would have received paperwork or emails at the time. Can you have a search to see if you can find anything? Even if the pension has been bought by a different company in between, it will still be in your name.

I probably did receive paperwork but at that age I just assumed they paid it to you once you reach a certain age (and it was way off my radar)
I don’t have access to the same email address anymore either.
I’ve made a note of some contact details for companies listed that it could be, will have a ring around next week & if not hope that new initiative gets launched in the next 30 years!

with the LGPS your pension will be deferred- most lgps schemes no have a portal that you can login to and you will be able to see the value of your deferred benefit. Just Google the scheme and register.

LGPS is an outlier amongst public sector schemes in that (a) it's funded rather than pay as you go and (b) there are separate funds across authorities or groups of them.

If you contact the council you worked for, or its successor if there's been a reorganisation, they should be able to point you in the right direction.

As to something through a small and gone private sector employer then the link above may be helpful.

You will just have 2 seperate local government pensions. I wouldn't worry about it, it will go up in value.