The new website, part of the Pension Tracing Service, enables you to enter your former employer’s details to receive details of pension schemes you may have paid into.

The site lists more than 320,000 pension scheme administrators. One woman who tested the site found she had a £10,000 pension pot with Aviva, her employer from around 30 years ago.

If you think you’re missing out on savings, you can use the free service here.

Minister for Pensions, Baroness Ros Altmann said: “People have had on average 11 jobs during their working life which can mean they have as many work place pensions to keep track of.

“The new DWP online Pension Tracing Service helps reunite people with their lost pensions, giving details of providers to help people track them down.”

Consolidate your pensions

Tom McPhail, head of retirement policy at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the move was a welcome development but added that the most effective way to avoid losing track of old pensions is to consolidate them “as far as possible into one arrangement”.

“This can be done by selecting one pension you prefer to work with and transferring old pensions into it,” he said.

“The government and pensions industry is also working on the Pension Dashboard, which will help investors view all their pension pots in one place.

“We would like to see the government go further and to modify the terms of auto-enrolment to allow employees to select the pension into which their employer pays their pension contributions.”