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

indiasign

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82121470#Comment_82121470

Yeah, my wife got the same email, logged in, ABS wouldn’t load.

We both worked in the same department, we both retired at the same time, but I haven’t even had an email 🙄

Dave46049

as of today - no ABS loaded…

JamesCoster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82118995#Comment_82118995

Exactly the same happened to me.

I finally received my quote over the weekend - both McCloud options are identical to the penny which I was surprised at and has made me question the accuracy of the quote.

horsewithnoname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82121953#Comment_82121953

I suppose it is theoretically possible that both options would be the same, but I can’t help but think it’s extremely unlikely.

Sapindus

Got an email saying my 2025/26 statement was ready. Unsurprisingly it has taken many tries to even get into the system having tried first thing this morning and then again later this evening, long periods staring at the whirling doughnut of doom, finally got to a page which promised a statement but "we cannot load your benefit statement at the moment".

And so my irritation has been deflected onto the hideously distracting font someone has chosen for the headings on the portal. I actually sent in a complaint about it. Good typology is invisible, bad typology is everywhere, as the quote goes. If sorting out our pensions is too difficult they could at least present their incompetence on a website which doesn't send everyone twitchy in the meantime.

Sapindus

Given how many people must be trying to get onto the system, maybe they could have released the statement in batches?

Universidad

Well, I have this year’s ABS. It is hard to put into words quite how disappointing it is, given how low my expectations already were.

It isn’t merely that every single line appears to be wrong, although every single line does appear to be wrong. I could understand, without accepting, incorrect figures: they produced it in a rush; they leaned on AI to do the maths; they hired underqualified staff en masse… any of those explanations would at least track.

What is truly unforgivable is that the document suggests Capita simply does not understand the assignment at a strategic level.

It represents my EPA -3 as “Pension payable from age 65”, falsely turning an entitlement defined relative to my NPA, and therefore SPA, into one payable at a fixed age. It elides the distinction between Added Pension for self only and Added Pension for self and dependants. It presents death benefits under two near-synonymous headings without explaining their relationship, despite pages of notes that purport to do so. And then it labels the entire total “Alpha annual pension payable at dd/mm/2047” (my 68th birthday, at least they got that right).

As though all its constituent tranches shared a pension age; as though no adjustment were required to make that total payable at 68; as though someone who specifically bought EPA were remotely likely to retire then; as though that date could not move with SPA.

It feels like an ABS designed by a project manager with no pension specialist in the room. There are basic reasons, obvious even to me as an untrained layperson, why you would not present someone’s pension information in these ways. How come the administrators of our pension don't appear to know those things?

Sapindus

Still getting

We cannot load your benefit statement at the moment

or

to give it its full trendily typefaced glory.

Goodness knows what that looks like to someone with dyslexia.

Universidad

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82122620#Comment_82122620

You should try getting woken up at 3am and checking then, the website positively speedy by comparison.

Sapindus

I keep seeing a message saying there are problems delivering OTPs and people should keep trying, and "there's no need to contact us" which is presumably a typo for "there's no point contacting us and it won't do any good".