Civil service trade unions call for urgent action on pensions

Prospect and the other members of the National Trade Union Committee have written to the Cabinet Office to demand urgent action to deal with serious problems with the administration of the civil service pension scheme.

There has been widespread reporting about problems facing scheme members attempting to log into or retrieve membership details from the scheme’s online portal since Capita took over the contract to administer the scheme on 1 December.

However, more recently, there have been growing numbers of reports from retired members about serious delays to the payment of their pensions and lump sums.

Steve Thomas, Prospect Deputy General Secretary, commented:

“Having difficulty registering or logging in to the online portal can be frustrating and inconvenient, but having no income for months while you wait for the scheme to pay your pension and lump sum can be catastrophic.

“Something seems to have gone very badly wrong. While this is not necessarily Capita’s fault, as most of these payments should have been made before they took on the contract, we need to be confident that they have a plan, including putting more resources in to clear the backlog as soon as possible.”

In the joint letter, sent earlier this week to the Cabinet Office, the civil service trade unions called for:

• Sufficient resources to clear the backlog of payments in a reasonable timeframe,
• A clear deadline for the backlog of delayed payments to be cleared by,
• Data on performance against contractual standards to track progress,
• Prioritisation of cases where members and relatives are waiting for payment,
• Postponement of VES exercises that will place additional burdens on Capita,
• Consideration of a compensation scheme for those suffering significant delays.

Thomas added:

“Prospect and the other civil service trade unions have called for, and had, unprecedented engagement on scheme administration in the immediate run-up to, and aftermath of, the transfer to Capita. We will continue to use these opportunities to push for a resolution of the various issues that members have raised with us.

“Our priority is getting pensions and lump sums paid to members waiting for these. Any Prospect members in this position should get in contact with their branch or full-time officer in the first instance.”