Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department has arrangements in place to assist with identifying pension schemes members.

Where the administrator of a pension scheme or a life company is unable to trace a member using their own resources, they can use my Department’s host mailing service. This is a contact only service whereby my Department forwards letters which contain minimal information to the last known address of a pension scheme member.

The pension provider must have made an unsuccessful attempt to contact the scheme member and my Department will only forward letters to the last known address of the member, based on its records.

It is important to note that, in all such cases, the Department does not share personal data with any third party, and relies on Article 6(f) of the GDPR to perform the communication with the customer.

The Department does not hold information on individuals' private pension entitlements and, therefore, the host mailing service cannot help individuals trace unclaimed pensions.  If a person believes that they may have an unclaimed pension entitlement, they should contact their former employers and/or pension scheme providers.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.