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

johnnyfreedosh

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82087368#Comment_82087368

I hope you have a speedy recovery. Look after yourself

horsewithnoname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82087208#Comment_82087208

the guidance on this is here

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim75020

daisy_1571

Sorry to hear that WTW, hope you are getting better now you are home

NewtsInThePond

@Watching_The_Wheels sending a virtual hug down this line to you. I am sorry I can't just phone up Capita myself for you and be your champion!!! You take care of yourself now.

NewtsInThePond

Article from the Civil Service World web site dated 28 July, regarding the appointment of Grant Thornton as adviser on the civil service pension debacle.

Civil service pension crisis: Grant Thornton appointed as independent remediation adviser

• Richard Vianello said he has agreed with Capita to create a quality assurance function within the Cabinet Office that “will provide us with a forensic review of a small sample of cases each month, so that we can check quality and adherence to process”.

Wow wee! Its only taken the Cabinet Office eight months to think that this could be good idea to put in place, for a supplier that is handling a government contract this big and significant!?!? Good grief! I really can't believe this was not built in as part of the initial contract spec requirements!!!🙄

hugheskevi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82088144#Comment_82088144

Checking of cases is usually done by the administrator, with a separate team within the administrator taking a sample of cases of various types worked on within the prior month to scrutinise in detail and report on any errors identified to the client.

It wouldn't be usual for a client to undertake that function due to a lack of capability - calculating DB benefits from base data is very complex and requires a senior pension adminstrator with experience of the scheme rules and access to the member's pension data, all of which a client is unlikely to have available. The client would normally be provided with the report about the error rate, and actions being taken to prevent future errors, by the administrator.

Watching_The_Wheels

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82087995#Comment_82087995

That’s very kind of you and much appreciated. Feeling better day by day and good enough today to be babysitting my nine week four day old West Highland White Terrier puppy by myself for a while.

And sad to reflect that I’m alone against Capita as many are in similar situations or worse.

NewtsInThePond

The link attached will take you to Taskforce Update Number 14 which was published today. Member Knowledge Article

hugheskevi

I really wish that rather than just putting lots of bullet point numbers in that there was consistency (eg around numbers with 3rd parties, number that can be processed, cases overdue and future cases, etc) and also an explanation of the change from previous updates.

The number of quotes and bereavement cases is much higher than the numbers around the last PAC hearing, yet there is no reason for this given in the update. When the previous numbers were summed to total there seemed to be around 20,000 cases unaccounted for between the broken-down figures and the stated overall total, so presumably these numbers take into account some of those cases.

The number of death-in-service cases is largely unchanged.

This is what the overall position now appears to look like, but due to the fragmented and inconsistent figures in the update many parts of this are speculative but included so as to track everything that Capita or the Cabinet Office has previously stated which might remain outstanding.

The general position is that we are now waiting until the end of September for the last round of deadlines to expire, which all fall due throughout September. Capita sent a detailed recovery plan to Cabinet Office in July that is being scrutinised and will almost certainly be the basis for the next recovery update beyond the existing September deadlines.

Caseload backlog, August 2026 (estimated)

	Total	In progress	Awaiting 3rd party input
Death-in-service	600	175	438
Divorce (existing cases)	1,400	800	600
Ill health retirements	429	360	69
Bereavement	13,047
Arrears and pension into payment*	4,900	3,100	1,800
Parliamentary raised cases	1,900	Managed by daily virtual surgeries. Many MPs reporting these surgeries are ineffective.
2015 Remedy	400	Was due by end June - to have implemented at least 400 of the Immediate Choice elections received but not yet implemented from the statements sent out between January and March 2025 (commitment made by Capita at 26th March Public Accounts Committee hearing [see Q233]
Retirement quotes	17,014	Around 1,300 are complex.
Total	39,690

• some members report that although arrears have been paid, 2026 Pension Increase has not been included, so a further arrears payment will be due. It is unclear whether these members are included in the figures in this row

Other deliverables

Reduce telephone answering time	9 minutes across all cases, longer for non-priority calls (Cabinet Office said 3-4 minutes, Capita say 8m 47s)
Portal updates	Angela MacDonald confirmed on 8th July that a further update is due. Capita previously said that only 1% of members don't have access, but many were still reporting lost access (username or password suddenly unrecognised and can't be reset). Live Chat only seemed to deal with portal access issues, with other queries having to go through the portal. Many report no answer to queries submitted through portal. Track My Case is extremely basic and only shows whether a case is open or closed. Uploading of documents seems problematic too (only one at a time, or limited size of document, or unable to upload anything at all).
Pre 2025 Annual Benefit Statements	Were due to be put in the member portal, overdue, no recent updates
Retirement modeller	Due mid-October
Transfers	Non-club transfers in suspended. Delays in other types of transfer quote due to backlog.
Pension divorce sharing	Resumed following revised SCAPE discount rate calculations, but backlog to clear
Recovery of interest free loans	Mostly Departmental led

Forthcoming deadlines

31st August	Capita revised deadline to produce quotes for past retirements and bereavement cases (straightforward cases)
31st August	Statutory deadline for combined ABS/RSS annual statements to active members
1st September	All pensions relating to the quotes issued by end June put into payment and arrears paid where member responded promptly
Early September	All bereavement cases to be cleared
September	Update due about 2015 Remedy / McCloud
30th September	More complicated cases back to service delivery agreement levels, aside from about 600 of the most complicated cases
6th October	Statutory deadline for Pension Saving Statements to be issued
31st October	Deadline for Pension Dashboard connection
Unspecified	Implement new actuarial factors based on new SCAPE discount rate of CPI+2% (not all factors produced by the Govt Actuary's Dept yet so no timeline). This will enable all transfers and divorce processing to resume.
Unspecified	Interest payments made for late payments
Unspecified	Individual claims for loss to be set up at a later date
6th April 2027	Implement Inheritance Tax changes
Mid 2027	Complete delivery of McCloud / 2015 Remedy - Immediate Choice Remedy Saving Statements all issued (and presumably remaining deferred members RSS), as well as things like Contingent Decisions, EPA compensation, etc

horsewithnoname

mid 2027 for McCloud to be sorted. I won’t hold my breath 🙄