New Capita-run Civil Service Pension Scheme - problems (what a surprise!)

Bullhorn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81861092#Comment_81861092

Banging on about case load and the previous contractors is taken straight from the misdirection handbook. Capita signed the contract in 2023, they knew exactly what they were taking on (and if they didn't, well who's fault is that?). They have been paid to do a job, and they have failed terribly and now they are trying to blame the people before.

ToneP

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81861433#Comment_81861433

I wholly agree with you regarding the aspect of the portal problems. This basic access to essential information is being deliberately played down.

There is no way that the Cabinet Office should have allowed the formal transfer to take place without a clear demonstration that users data had been correctly copied over and was capable of being accessed. The handling of case backlogs is a separate matter.

Whilst I have a very small amount of sympathy with the call to only contact Capita if your case is 'urgent' it distracts from the fact that information access is a fundamental & basic component of what they were contracted to deliver. If you can't create or access your account how can you check if it's correct or make any decisions regarding retirement?

YellowCarBlueCar

The portal looks as though it hasn't been proof-read, never mind tested.

They have my marital status as single (though they have my wife as my beneficiary). Instructions on how to correct this below (my highlighting).

Would you really trust them not to lose official documents and process them within 5 days?

Edited to add - more importantly to me, there is no sign of my deferred pension.

indiasign

“Like someone said above, it does make you wonder how and why Capita got the contract?”

It’s the old government procurement contract merry go round - Capita were given the original contract to administer pension payroll in 2010. They were a bit rubbish, so in 2012, the contract went to MyCSP, (which was then part owned by the Cabinet Office)

But then, as now, things didn’t go smoothly - I found this in an article in CSW from 2018:

“MyCSP was established as a company in 2012, jointly owned by its employees, Equiniti and the government, and has since improved services for pension scheme members and delivered millions of pounds of savings to the taxpayer.” 

MyCSP’s history has not been turbulence-free, however. Two years after it was set up the organisation took over pension and payroll services previously provided by Capita, only to run into difficulties with late payments to thousands of pensioners. Problems stemmed from the introduction of a new pension-administration IT system called Compendia and low staffing levels.“

Sounds horribly familiar 🙁

hugheskevi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81862228#Comment_81862228

There are some very close parallels to the situation 12 years ago. For example, this NAO report says of the transition from Capita to MyCSP in 2014:

Following migration, MyCSP could not cope with the increase in calls and emails. Between September 2014 and March 2015, MyCSP failed to answer 99,408 calls

A backlog of work grew at MyCSP. MyCSP did not have sufficient staff to process the 14,000 items of work inherited from Capita and the 40,000 data issues requiring attention caused by migration of the system. A backlog grew between September 2014 and January 2015. This peaked at 22,000 urgent cases in January 2015. The backlog of urgent cases was cleared in March 2015

MyCSP had far more casework to complete following migration than it expected. MyCSP expected 10,000 to 12,000 items of work in progress casework to be transferred from Capita, such as payment of new awards or notifications of a change in circumstance. MyCSP told the Cabinet Office that there were 54,000 items of work in progress at the point of transfer.

The Cabinet Office told MyCSP in January 2015 to develop a plan to tackle the backlog. The Cabinet Office asked MyCSP to manually count the backlog of outstanding work, prioritise the most urgent items and develop a plan to stabilise the business by the end of March 2015

Also constant change:

MyCSP also had to cope with a raft of pension reforms. Final salary public sector pensions had to be phased out and replaced with a more cost-effective career average scheme by April 2015 [ie the parallel to McCloud today, ironically caused by the introduction of those career average schemes]

"Civil servants are very adept at complaining. We received letters from MPs, complaints to the contact centre, email complaints, twitter complaints, and complaints from journalists. So not only did the calls go up but the volume of work went through the roof."

SimonSeys

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce…

Universidad

"Civil servants are very adept at complaining".

Don't know whether to be flattered or offended, honestly.

I'm glad nothing urgent needs to happen with my pension any time soon. I hope they manage to continue my EPA without interuption come April.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing my ABS in August (?) this year (??)

horsewithnoname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81860945#Comment_81860945

two bidders apparently. One was capita, obviously, and doubtless cheapest, no one knows for a fact who the other bidder was, but it being MyCsp isn’t too far fetched an idea I dare say?

Golactico

Some of the stories highlighted in this article are absolutely awful.

https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/this-is-a-human-crisis-mps-shine-light-on-civil-service-pension-scheme-crisis

Comparisons with the Post Office Horizon scandal might initially seem over the top, but not to some of these people.

GibbsRule_No3.

I’m glad someone else mentioned that Capita had it before MyCSP. I retired (still doing 2 days) at the time they were last switching between the two. I think there was a little hitch, but as I was still earning it did not affect me greatly due to a wage still coming in. Odd that they can go back to a company people were complaining about, hence the change.