The phones at CSPA HQ are still very busy as we take calls from members frustrated by the difficulties they’re having in attempting to contact Capita about their pensions. Members tell us they’ve held on for 3 hours or more, in all too many cases, before their calls are answered. We are told this is down to continued high demand – with 3 to 4 times as many incoming calls as usual – alongside the backlog of 86,000 unprocessed cases Capita ‘inherited’ from MyCSP. Capita already has 500 staff employed on the contract – twice as many as the previous administrators – and they’ve said that they are bringing in 150 more people to help them deal with these things.
That’s as may be, and these late assurances and apologies are all well and good, but it simply isn’t acceptable from our members point of view, and it just isn’t good enough.
We are escalating the issues our members are experiencing to Capita, the Cabinet Office and elsewhere, to get them resolved and bring about improvements to the service. Cases where people’s pensions are not being paid are also making their way into the House of Commons, as MPs raise PMQs on behalf of constituents, and into the mainstream media, with coverage on the BBC One Show (Watchdog) and in many of the national newspapers.
Sally Tsoukaris, CSPA General Secretary said,
“We have recently been updated about how Capita and the Cabinet Office plan to address the most immediate issues, but we will continue to push for answers and service improvements on behalf of CSPA members.
“It’s hard to understand how, with alarm bells ringing last Autumn following concerns about the transfer being raised by CSPA, the unions, the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee, the switchover nevertheless went ahead on 1st December.
“Surely, in the weeks and months before Capita’s contract went live, the backlog of cases piling up at MyCSP would have been a known risk.
“We already knew that Capita had failed to meet some milestones across the 2-year transition, so it is hardly a surprise to discover, almost 2 months in, that certain basic systems and processes are still not well established.
“The Government must urgently take stock and ensure that the retired and retiring civil servants whose lives have been impacted, and especially those who have suffered resultant hardship, are adequately supported and have their pensions paid out in full.
“We must make sure that lessons are learnt, to ensure that this shambolic situation is never repeated. It is, to put it plainly, a national disgrace.
