Report confirms fears about Civil Service Pension Scheme administration

The National Audit Office report Investigation into the administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme, has found a significant decline in performance since its last report in 2016.

The report, published on 16 June, highlights call response times of 24 minutes against a target of 30 seconds and an abandoned call rate consistently above 20% and as high as 30%.

The findings underline PCS concerns about the risks arising from the imminent transfer of the scheme’s administration from MyCSP to Capita Business Services. Specifically, to simplify the new platform at the point of transition, key functions have been removed, including the online pension portal which is a vital service to scheme members.

Until privatisation in 2013 the Scheme was reliably administered by civil servants. Ministers had oversight and control of service provision and costs. PCS concludes from this, and previous reports, that the procurement model itself has been a costly mistake and that pension administration belongs in-house. 

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “The National Audit Office report confirms what scheme members have been telling us for over two years. It is certainly a failure of service when thousands of scheme members are unable to access financial information to make important personal decisions as they near retirement.”