I opted out of serps

boopboop70

I remember opting out of Serps around 1986-1988 as part of my endowment mortgage.
I was told by a family member that once I hit 55 I can claim the money that I'm missing. Does anyone know how I go about doing this please?

QrizB

boopboop70 said:

I remember opting out of Serps around 1986-1988 ...

Contracting out?

boopboop70 said:

...as part of my endowment mortgage. 

Was it a pension-backed mortgage?

boopboop70 said:

I was told by a family member that once I hit 55 I can claim the money that I'm missing. Does anyone know how I go about doing this please?

If you did contract out, you'll have a private pension from that period. In principle you should be receiving occasional letters from them.
Do you remember anything else about your mid-80s pensions?

Marcon

boopboop70 said:

I remember opting out of Serps around 1986-1988 as part of my endowment mortgage.
I was told by a family member that once I hit 55 I can claim the money that I'm missing. Does anyone know how I go about doing this please?

It's got nothing to do with your endowment mortgage, even though the phrase 'pension mortgage' was bandied around in the late 80s and early 90s.

If you contracted out of SERPS (opting out of a pension has a different meaning - it means not joining, and that's not what you think you did), you will have something known as an 'appropriate personal pension' lurking somewhere. That pension will have a reference number allocated to it by HMRC.

Ring HMRC on 0330 200 3500, with your NI number to hand, and say you believe you contracted out around 1988. They (should) be able to give you the necessary information about the scheme you used. You then need to contact the provider to establish what funds* are in the scheme and what options you have for accessing them. It will be a very old contract and may not have all the 'modern' options, but find out first and then come back if you need more help.

*There may not be any money left if the contributions to the scheme were small and the fees were high.

Brie

You could also have been contracted out of SERPS through a work pension.  Again the HMRC should know what scheme that was with.

molerat

What does your pension forecast show reference your contracted out status ? https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

dunstonh

I remember opting out of Serps around 1986-1988 as part of my endowment mortgage.

Contracting ouot of SERPS (not opting out) has nothing to do with endowment mortgages.

I was told by a family member that once I hit 55 I can claim the money that I'm missing. 

What money are you missing?

 Does anyone know how I go about doing this please?

I think your family member was pulling your leg.    Or you are getting the wrong end of the stick.

When you contracted out of SERPS, the rebates would have been paid to an appropriate personal pension.   You would have received annual statements detailing the value of your pension.    You can access the pension from age 55 but that has nothing to do with it being missing.    Who is the pension provider?