So, after an initial rummage both on and offline I’ve tracked down 6 pensions, 4 being smaller contribution workplace pensions (forgive my poor terminology) which includes my current one.
I also discovered that I did pay into a DB scheme for a period of 18 months between 2001 & 2002, however that stopped as I read many others did at the time. I was auto-enrolled into the DC scheme paid into this until 2014 (not made any further contributions),
Of the two pensions I traced I'd paid into a DB one for about nine months and a DC one for a couple of years. The DB is worth around £500 a year when I retire. The charges on the DC one exhausted it long before I tracked it down.
Your DC scheme starting post 2001 means it's very likely stakeholder compliant meaning it wouldn't have the rip-off charges I faced, but it's worth keeping an eye on it, checking the annual statements are showing it going up rather than down
I could always approach L&G and ask them for an up to date CETV, is there any harm in that to give me an idea?
There should be no issue with that at all. They should also be sending you annual statements, but if you'd lost contact with them through moving home or whatever they may have that suspended as you'd be marked as gone away. When you contact them they'll switch that back on
As I understand it, this is the amount they would pay in the form of a transferable pension to rid them of the liability? I think they are/were struggling funding wise If that makes a discernible difference?.
Okay so this is where the difference between DB & DC kicks in.
If it's a defined contribution pension then you and your employer (and HMRC) have paid into an individual pot for you and L&G will be managing that for you. If the employer goes tits up they'd stop contributing (but as you're not anyway I assume you left the job anyway). What they can't do is take your pot.
If L&G themselves were heading into financial difficulty then they'd sell their pension (and life) books on - to someone like Aviva say, or be bought out entirely. The pension books are a huge asset as basically they're investing your money but taking a skim of any profit.
Pension books change hands all the time. It's why it's often tricky to trace an old pension, because the administration may have changed hands several times
So TL;DR version if it's a DC pension then no it won't make a difference to the value. It's the stock market that causes big fluctuations in DC values