Emergency payments scheme launched
This article is from the Public and Services Commercial Union and can be found on its website
Interest free loans are now available for pension scheme members awaiting payment of their civil service pensions.
The introduction of interest free loans of £5000 for pension scheme members, instead of the payments due to them from their civil service pensions, will hopefully alleviate the financial distress the Capita crisis is causing.
PCS has been working with our PCS parliamentary group on behalf of more than 8,000 members with delayed pension payments.
Particular thanks go to Lorraine Beavers, MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood for securing a Westminster Hall Debate, carried without opposition on Wednesday, which was well attended. Lord Davies of Brixton followed this up with a parliamentary question on Thursday.
Responding from the front bench, Baroness Anderson described the payments as bridging loans of £5000, or exceptionally £10,000, to get money into people’s bank accounts within days, not weeks or months.
Members are reporting to us that they are being asked for financial information in a humiliating telephone interview and then told a decision will be given in five days, but with a potential wait of 28 days to receive the payment.
In a meeting with the Cabinet Office on Thursday the question was asked whether the measure is a bridging loan or a hardship payment. In response, we were told that the measure is intended to provide payment where pension benefits are overdue and that proof of hardship would not be required. PCS is monitoring this closely and, based on the intention set out by the Cabinet Office, our advice is not to accept decisions where the application is declined unless it is because your pension is not yet overdue.
As the emergency payments are being processed as employer loans, pensioners are being directed to contact their former employer. If your employment ended more than 12 months ago, and for payments to beneficiaries, this facility cannot be provided by the employer and people should contact Capita direct.
Capita can be contacted via their website or on 0300 123 6666. The postal address is Capita Pensions Solutions, PO Box 713, Darlington DL1 9JZ.
It is not just the unions who have been helping out
Civil Service Pension Scheme: Advice from a barrister on compensation and redress
Here’s a barrister, Paul Newman doing his best to help out; this post addressed to civil servants affected.
The dos and don’ts to protect your position and preserve your right to redress, according to pensions barrister Paul Newman
Civil service pension delays and errors can have immediate consequences: retirement may be postponed, household finances can come under pressure, and members may spend weeks or months chasing answers. Although official updates have acknowledged serious administration problems and a recovery plan is under way, that does not resolve any individual member’s case. If you are affected, it is important to deal with the problem in a way that protects your position and preserves your right to redress.
A recovery plan does not answer your individual case
A scheme-wide recovery plan may improve service levels over time and include priority handling or hardship support. But members still need answers on their own files. In practice, the key questions are:
- What is my correct pension position?
- What is outstanding, and when will it be paid?
- Is anything missing from my record?
- What impact has this had on me?
- What redress is available?
A general update can explain what is being done across the system. It cannot answer those questions for any one member.
What problems are members typically facing?
The most common issues are:
- Delays (relating to quotations, calculations, pension payments, lump sums, responses and corrections)
- Incomplete or inaccurate information (such as missing service history, changing figures, delayed record updates)
- Poor communication (involving long waits, repeated chasing, inconsistent answers, no clear timetable)
- Poor communication can turn a manageable delay into a much more stressful problem.
What redress may be available?
It is natural to focus first on: “When will I be paid?” That is the right starting point, but it is often not the whole issue.
In many pension administration cases, there are two separate questions: putting the pension right, and redress for what went wrong. The former may include correcting records and calculations, paying arrears, and confirming future payments on the correct basis. The latter, depending on the facts, may include:
- Interest for delay
- Compensation for distress and inconvenience
- Reimbursement of financial loss (if evidenced)
- A written explanation and apology
- Fair treatment in any overpayment recovery case
A common mistake is to pursue the correction but never ask about redress.
Capita’s explanation of their failure makes no sense.
Capita complain here that they were not given the full state of affairs with Civil Servant Pensions and that only a proportion of the problems are down to them. Why was the problem given to Capita to sort things out?
At a session of parliament’s Public Accounts Committee yesterday, chief executive of Capita Public Services Richard Holroyd and Capita Pension Solutions managing director Chris Clements insisted the scale of the workload was not made clear.
MPs heard that there is now a backlog of around 120,000 cases, up from 86,000 when Capita formally took on administration of the pension scheme on 1 December last year. Thousands of newly-retired scheme members are still waiting to receive lump-sum payments and their regular pensions.
Some perspective – civil servants are relatively well off
It’s a nightmare for retiring civil servants. It is good to see MPs looking at this . But there are plenty of people not so lucky that need parliament’s attention too.
Sack them, get rid of them. Crapita.