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

horsewithnoname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82152504#Comment_82152504

I don’t know why if your situation is fairly straightforward, i.e. it’s just a matter of working out each scheme for seven years more/less then it really isn’t complicated.
the trouble is that if you don’t properly train people and have enough to do a proper job because you’re more concerned with paying enormous ceo salaries and huge dividends rather than doing the job you are charged with; well, this is the result.
If there is an example of privatisation that has worked out better for the poor punter, I’m not aware of it.

ShottsBA

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82152576#Comment_82152576

I haven't had a quote at all yet. I wish I'd saved the last mycsp estimates, but I was a trusting soul and thought nothing could go wrong.

ShottsBA

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82153438#Comment_82153438

I've asked the question but as you know the customer service staff simply don't know how to answer and aren't allowed to contact the backroom/ops staff or put me through to anyone who can explain. They offer escalation which might result in a call back, but I've never had one in 10 months of waiting. Last time I looked I had 17 recorded escalated calls. Contact centre managers won't take calls over from staff that are clearly in difficulty.

There is no aspect of the service that reaches the worst level of performance by other organisations I deal with.

JamesCoster

I've queried both McCloud remedies indicating exactly the same figures, but am not hopeful of receiving an answer.

All of which is delaying my pension of course. I may just go for it anyway; if there is an error it's only something I'll pay for for the rest of my life.

I do think if the whole Capita debacle was affecting any other group than Civil Servants, there would be far more of an outcry.

veyrongirl

My husband applied for partial retirement in Nov 25 to start April 1 this year. We have been lied to consistently since February when they claimed they had no request for a quote. His employers have resubmitted 3 times and received acknowlegments each time. They were told twice that he did not exist and they responded immediately.

We were told at the end of March that it was being worked on and would be with us by the end of April. Capita later denied this call took place. In May they claimed no application again, resubmitted and receipted by employer. In June told being sent out in batches, could be up to 5 weeks. In August told not looked at yet, so I asked my MP to raise it, she is waiting for a reponse.

September 4 we were told that she could see calculations and document raised but not printed. We queried whether this was actually his ABS because of the date and were told no.

After waiting on hold for an hour this morning we have again been told that his quote has not even been looked at and they are unable to give any timescale for anything to be worked on. He then had the nerve to end the call with "you try and have a good day"

My husband did receive an email about a formal complaint regarding the portal, which is strange as he never made one. We have received no response to his reply to that.

We are fortunate that we are not dependent on this money, but it is his entitlement after 35 years service

hugheskevi

Today marks the day that everything should be back to full service level agreement, which is about the 4th time there were promises of this during 2026, with the other promises all not met, and this one seeming rather improbable to be met either although we will receive an update on this in October.

There was a caveat given by Capita at one of the PAC hearings, that at the end of September there would still be 600 of the most complex cases left to process.

The last Cabinet Office update showed 2,282 cases over 100 days since being raised as at mid September, but given the multiple posts on this forum and others about Capita's logging of cases, combined with the complete non-response to portal queries, and much confusion about whether a case exitsts, is waiting for information, has been calculated but not processed, etc, it seems very likely there are large volumes of unlogged issues, quote requests, etc, that are not captured by those numbers.

Although McCloud doesn't really add a lot of complexity to a pension calculation by the administrator (it adds volume rather than complexity if all required data is present), those affected by McCloud will have a longer service history (back to at least 2012), and that alone can make calculations harder due to the higher chance of missing data. It also means two sets of calculations, and they probably are not fully automated, so handling will be longer. I would not be at all surprised if any case showing any signs of complexity is pended, to enable higher volumes to be achieved by only processing the simplest cases. Then cases can be allocated:

• Not logged - does not count toward stats
• Sent to employer for more information - counts as a non-actionable case, whether or not the information has been previously provided, or is not necessary
• Sent to individual (or medical adviser, person dealing with probate, etc) for more information - counts as a non-actonable case, whether or not the information has been previously provided, or is not necessary

Once the above categories are disregarded, Capita claims to only have about 750 of cases that are 100+ days old and workable. That figure looks very close to the figure of 600 quoted to the PAC hearing, so it might not be too surprising if the next stats update reduces the workable long-outstanding caseload to just under 600. That could form the basis for a perhaps heroic claim that the administration commitment had been achieved.

Hopefully the findings of Govt internal audit agency report into Capita's operational arrangements due in October will analyse the reporting of numbers, and provide findings on how reliable the quoted case numbers actually are. I think reassurance of their completeness and robustness would be very welcome.

WorryPot

Thank you @hugheskevi a very thorough summary of the mess that is Capita.

Together with the account from @veyrongirl above, it appears blatantly obvious that there are cases where Capita deliberately lose, unnecessarily query or deny ever receiving information....just so that they can move legitimate claims into the 'non-workable' pile.

Cabinet Office - please, at least one of you people must be reading this.

Do something….please

New_World_Man

I applied for my pension on 11 November 2025 in advance of a retirement date of 12 March 2026. This reflected the website advice to give 4 months notice. I had 22 years continuous service and some added pension which I had paid for in full a few years back. Aside from an acknowledgment (after months of chasing), I still await my quote. I’m fortunate that I have emergency savings to fall back on in the meantime for day to day expenses. It has taken the shine off retirement as I had a lot of things I intended to do during the summer with my lump sum.

BlueSky001

I applied for partial retirement on 1 May, and my retirement date is today. I have not yet received a quote.

I contacted CSP/Capita 2 weeks ago, I was on hold for over 3 hours before I got cut-off at 6pm, and I was on hold for 2 hours the following day when I eventually got through. This is far removed from the quoted 9-minute average wait time.

What is even worse, I was told that my application had been "terminated" in June. There was no explanation for this, but it was implied that it might have been a system error. So my application wasn't even included in the backlogs!

My case was reinstated and passed to a senior manager. I was told I would receive a quote by today, but nothing. I have made a formal complaint to Capita, not that it will make any difference.

I wonder how many other applications have been unknowingly "terminated".

veyrongirl

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82154015#Comment_82154015

I am convinced that this is what happened to my husband. We phoned after they did a big update at the end of March because it said he only had 2 years service (instead of 34+) on the portal. There was an open case showing so we asked about progress and were told that it was being worked on and we should receive something by the end of April. By the end of April the case had vanished and when we phoned they said there was no application and no record of the call on 30 March (that call now shows on the portal categorised as "Other" and "Something else".

Our MP has now had a reply stating that my husbands quote was sent on 26 August, this ties in with what we were told on Sept 4 but no quote had been received. Back on the phone tomorrow!