How to get your full employment history from HMRC (and why it finds pensions nothing else can)

What your HMRC app and Personal Tax Account show

The HMRC app and your Personal Tax Account show your recent employment history — roughly the last five years. That is useful, but it is not your full record. Employers from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s will usually not appear there.

Why you need the whole history for pension tracing

A forgotten pension sits behind a forgotten employer. If you only look at the last five years, you look at the years you can already remember. The whole history is where the surprises are — the job you had for eighteen months in your twenties, the company that was taken over, the scheme nobody ever wrote to you about.

The full record is free, and the law requires it

HMRC holds your employment record and must provide it to you on request. You ask for it as a subject access request under data protection law. There is no fee. The law gives HMRC a month to respond. You can do this yourself, for nothing, and you should know that before you consider paying anyone for anything. (correct as at 17 September 2026)

The free route is your Personal Tax Account at gov.uk/personal-tax-account, or a written request to HMRC. A written request is the route that reaches the entire record, not just the recent years.

How to ask in writing

Two things matter in a request: that HMRC can identify you, and that it is clear what you are asking for.

• Enough to identify you: full name, date of birth, National Insurance number, and address.
• A clear statement of what you want: a copy of your full National Insurance and employment history, covering your entire contribution history to date.

What this tool adds — and what it does not

We cannot make HMRC answer faster, and we do not hold or see your record: the request goes from you to HMRC. What we add is the letter itself — written, addressed to the right office and ready to sign — and then a seven-question letter for every scheme the history turns up. That is the whole of it.

Then the schemes

Once the list arrives, each employer is a lead. Write to each scheme and ask the questions that determine whether a pension exists and what it holds. The free tracing service at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details gives you the current contact details for a scheme if you can name the employer or provider.