| Crapita: copyright Private Eye 15:56 - Jan 29 with 2970 views | DJR |
My wife is due to receive her deferred Civil Service pension in March. She received a letter in October asking if she wanted a retirement pack and she duly requested one online as she wants to draw her pension immediately. She followed this up with a phone call and was told she should receive the pack by 12 January.
It didn't arrive, so she has spent hours on the phone recently trying to get through to find out where it is but without success.
She discovered today that Capita had taken over the running of the scheme on 1 December but the position seems much more chaotic that it was because at least before then she was able to get through to someone.
Anyway digging about I've discovered this is a widespread issue and it has got a lot of coverage. Here's an article that has just appeared on the Guardian websie.
https://www.theguardian.com/mo
"My kids buy me food’: civil service pensioners offered emergency loans as nearly 90,000 face delays
Government to lend up to £10,000 to worst-affected new retirees as minister admits there is ‘unacceptable’ backlog"
Newly retired civil servants say they are struggling to pay bills and buy food because delays at their pension scheme have left them without an income for months.
Pensioners have reported being forced to borrow money from family to pay for food and heating, with some saying they feared losing their homes because they could not afford their rent or mortgage.
The apparent crisis at the Civil Service Pension Scheme has now been acknowledged by the government, which revealed that interest-free “hardship loans” of up to £10,000 will be offered to thousands of the worst-affected people. Some are also likely to be able to access compensation.
The pension scheme has admitted to a backlog of nearly 90,000 cases – comprising claims, valuations and other requests – that it warned could take months to resolve. Some members have been waiting since January 2025 for their pension claim to be processed.
About 3,000 civil servants retire every month, and the government has accepted that many of those who have retired since 1 December last year will not have received their first pension payment.
One former civil servant, who did not want to be named, said she was forced to apply for universal credit because she had been left without income since retiring from the Department for Work and Pensions in August.
“I used up all my savings over the first four months and have no family to help me,” she said. “The stress has forced me to take antidepressants.”
Another submitted a claim for her pension in January 2025 before retiring three months later. “I’ve yet to receive a penny,” she said. “I can’t afford to put my heating on. It breaks my heart having to ask my kids to buy me food.”
The Civil Service Pension Scheme is overseen by the Cabinet Office, which outsourced the administration to MyCSP, part of Equiniti, more than a decade ago. However, last month the £239m contract passed to Capita after a two-year transition period.
A report by parliament’s public accounts committee last October questioned whether Capita was ready to take over the scheme –which has 1.7 million members – and suggested the government explore bringing the administration in-house.
Many scheme members said they had been unable to log in to their accounts since Capita took over in December, and reported unanswered emails and long waits on phone lines.
Some reported that Capita, which was criticised for its administration of Teachers’ Pensions, had told them not to get in touch while the backlog was addressed.
One 69-year-old retiree said he feared his home would be repossessed unless his pension lump sum was paid before his mortgage term ends in April. His pension entitlement was due to start last October, and his mortgage lender will not extend his term because of his age.
He said on one occasion he had been in a queue on the phone to MyCSP for five hours without getting through. “I spent a further two hours starting at position 26, then being cut off when I reached the top of the queue,” he said.
Catherine Little, the chief operating officer for the civil service, told MPs there was no firm figure for how many scheme members were experiencing financial hardship, but that about 8,500 people had had some sort of issue with their pension payments since 1 December. She said the standard level for the loans would be £5,000, with up to £10,000 for exceptional cases.
The campaign group Civil Service Pensioners’ Alliance (CSPA) said it had been “deluged” with complaints from people facing hardship since Capita took over the administration in December.
Some scheme members had been hit with shock tax bills after Capita recorded incorrect tax codes, it said.
Capita said it was aware of problems with tax codes affecting a limited number of members and was working with HMRC to resolve them.
It blamed MyCSP for the delays experienced by claimants and said it had increased staffing levels.
“At the time of contract signature [in 2023], the volume of work-in-progress items left by the previous provider was agreed to be 37,000,” a spokesperson said. “Once we took over the scheme in December, however, we discovered that the backlog we were inheriting was in fact 86,000. As a result we have experienced several times the normal volume of member queries since launch.”
A spokesperson for MyCSP said: “All outstanding work items were fully disclosed and agreed with Cabinet Office senior management prior to commencement of the handover process. Over the course of its tenure administering the scheme, MyCSP consistently met the service levels set by the Cabinet Office.”
The Cabinet Office said it was aware of the problems faced by members and their impact.
“We have strong contractual levers in place to ensure Capita delivers, alongside strengthened controls over the scheme, to ensure a more reliable and efficient service for both members and taxpayers,” a spokesperson said."
The whole situation is a disgrace and demonstrates to me how awful the contracting out of public services is. Fortunately our finances are good enough to cope with any delay but clearly many people's aren't.
[Post edited 29 Jan 16:06]
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| Crapita: copyright Private Eye on 09:04 - Mar 13 with 189 views | DJR |
| Crapita: copyright Private Eye on 08:42 - Mar 13 by Father_Jack |
That sounds horrendous. You must be at wit's end.
I was led to believe I'd hear from Capita "mid- March", but nothing yet. If their communication, when it comes, is couched in similar terms I'm not sure how I would be able.to deal with it.
The one small crumb of comfort for me is that I left under a VES scheme rather than via normal "retirement" and my department has retained the scheme administrators until this is all resolved. They ring me up occasionally to say they are doing their best for us, so I don't feel totally "alone".
I wish you the very best of luck. |
My wife managed to get through this morning, and speaking to someone there, it appears that the document she uploaded is on their system but they can't read it which is odd given it is a PDF, it met their size requirements, was successfully uploaded and reads perfectly at our end.
Whilst she was on the phone, she sent a message with another upload of the document but their system at the moment only has the message and not the upload showing. She'll call later to see if it has appeared.
The other crazy thing is that sending it to them by email instead (as suggested) would require the provision of two proofs of identity , something not mentioned in the email my wife received. Whilst that may satisfy their security requirements, my wife pointed out that sending proofs of identity by email did not seem secure from her point of view. Indeed, that is why there is a secure portal. But if it doesn't work it's a complete shambles.
I am being kept up to date on this by my union (of which I am a retired member) and this is yet another shocking aspect of the "system".
"The FDA continues to raise that it is insufficient for Capita to advise members to use their portal for updates when 122,000 scheme members, who had breaks in qualifying service, are unable to register and/or login to the site because of data issues." [Post edited 13 Mar 9:10]
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| Crapita: copyright Private Eye on 09:32 - Mar 13 with 157 views | Churchman |
| Crapita: copyright Private Eye on 09:04 - Mar 13 by DJR |
My wife managed to get through this morning, and speaking to someone there, it appears that the document she uploaded is on their system but they can't read it which is odd given it is a PDF, it met their size requirements, was successfully uploaded and reads perfectly at our end.
Whilst she was on the phone, she sent a message with another upload of the document but their system at the moment only has the message and not the upload showing. She'll call later to see if it has appeared.
The other crazy thing is that sending it to them by email instead (as suggested) would require the provision of two proofs of identity , something not mentioned in the email my wife received. Whilst that may satisfy their security requirements, my wife pointed out that sending proofs of identity by email did not seem secure from her point of view. Indeed, that is why there is a secure portal. But if it doesn't work it's a complete shambles.
I am being kept up to date on this by my union (of which I am a retired member) and this is yet another shocking aspect of the "system".
"The FDA continues to raise that it is insufficient for Capita to advise members to use their portal for updates when 122,000 scheme members, who had breaks in qualifying service, are unable to register and/or login to the site because of data issues." [Post edited 13 Mar 9:10]
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They are just blocking.
Another example of outsourcing is HMRC call centres.
https://www.theregister.com/20
A friend of mine administers tax returns for clients (taxi drivers etc) and he had dealings with this lot the other day. His client was getting penalty notices but for reasons I don’t understand is having real trouble filing a return.
To cut a long story short, once they’d got through (90 mins) they had to answer 14 security questions in batches of 5. They got to the 15th which was something like the exact date a return was filed 7 years ago. They gave the month, but didn’t know the exact date. ‘Security fail!’ The man shouted. They were told that the account would be marked and they should never phone again. Beeeeeeeep.
In other words, it’s set up to bin tax payers out and to rake in penalty charges. Nice juicy contract paid for by taxpayers to offer taxpayers no service whatsoever. |  | | |
| Crapita: copyright Private Eye on 09:52 - Mar 13 with 135 views | MedwayTractor |
| Crapita: copyright Private Eye on 18:20 - Jan 29 by stuyarmouthblue |
I know a little about this. It's one of those situations where the Tories created a mess but then Labour didn't exactly help. I recommend your wife writes to your MP about it. Sometimes this helps. |
If you have sufficient confidence in your MP, get to it. Nothing gets those running our public services off their backsides more swiftly than a letter of complaint on House of Commons notepaper. |  |
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| Crapita: copyright Private Eye on 09:52 - Mar 13 with 137 views | DJR |
| Crapita: copyright Private Eye on 09:32 - Mar 13 by Churchman |
They are just blocking.
Another example of outsourcing is HMRC call centres.
https://www.theregister.com/20
A friend of mine administers tax returns for clients (taxi drivers etc) and he had dealings with this lot the other day. His client was getting penalty notices but for reasons I don’t understand is having real trouble filing a return.
To cut a long story short, once they’d got through (90 mins) they had to answer 14 security questions in batches of 5. They got to the 15th which was something like the exact date a return was filed 7 years ago. They gave the month, but didn’t know the exact date. ‘Security fail!’ The man shouted. They were told that the account would be marked and they should never phone again. Beeeeeeeep.
In other words, it’s set up to bin tax payers out and to rake in penalty charges. Nice juicy contract paid for by taxpayers to offer taxpayers no service whatsoever. |
That is madness.
And this is something further from the FDA, the key sentence being "A pension scheme that doesn’t pay out pensions on time has a lot to answer for."
Members may have seen that MacDonald appeared alongside Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary, Cat Little, at the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on 3 March. Questioning from the committee detailed the extent of service failures and the human impact this has had on individuals.
It is essential that parliamentary committee hearings now are only the start of the accountability process for what has gone wrong. A pension scheme that doesn’t pay out pensions on time has a lot to answer for. Transparency around administration contracts is part of this picture and we are pleased there is interest in the FDA’s demand for more information on expected service levels and KPIs. We will use our influence to continue making the case for both retrospective and ongoing accountability." | | | |
| Crapita: copyright Private Eye on 15:48 - Mar 13 with 86 views | Clapham_Junction |
| Crapita: copyright Private Eye on 08:24 - Mar 13 by Churchman |
Interesting thread, not least because I too worked for the CS and have seen what the ‘benefits’ of outsourcing are and why Capital were chosen to administer pension provision.
They were cheap. Bung in a low tender, get the contract and the loot and don’t worry about it. The government didn’t care. Had they done so they’d never have thrown that juicy bone to Capita. They’ve been known as utterly useless by anyone who has ever had any dealings with them for decades including me.
But Civil Servant woes are hardly vote winners so whats there to worry about? With a bit of luck the problem will resolve itself when the dregs of the planet (CS workers) die.
Outsourcing rarely works. I can’t think of one occasion where it has. It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about fixing potholes, laying cables or paying public servants pensions. The driving force is profit (taxpayers money) for the company in return for as little as they can get away with.
My understanding is that Capita knew exactly what they were getting into, despite their lies. Its a scandal alright. [Post edited 13 Mar 8:25]
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There was a great story about another successful privatisation in France on the BBC yesterday:
https://www.bbc.com/news/artic |  | | |
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