Jim Shannon

Let me read out an email sent by a lady who worked for almost 50 years in the civil service at His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. If anyone knows how to work the figures, then this lady does. Yet she is powerless in the face of Capita. “I joined the Civil Service in September 1977 and retired from it on the 31 December 2025. I worked in the Inland Revenue that then became HMRC. I have not received my lump sum or final details of my pension. I telephoned Capita on the 13 January and after hanging on the line for 2hrs 10 mins (being 12 in the queue) was told by Helen a chaser would be made to processing. She was unable to let me speak with a manager or processing and confirmed there are issues with logging/registering with the new pensions portal. I telephoned again today and after hanging on for nearly 5hrs was told by Lilly she would send an escalation today to her manager Adrian. I asked for a call back & whilst Lilly agreed to make this request to her manager she could not guarantee it could be done. I explained I could not get onto the pension portal and she advised the issues with it would not be sorted until March.” That is the lived experience of a lady who has dedicated almost 50 years of her working life to the civil service—a lady who knew the penalties in place for those who are paid late and who could listen to the extenuating circumstances that someone was going through. I know that the Minister is not responsible but, my goodness Capita needs a throttling. I have five questions. Why did civil service pensions not postpone the changeover to Capita until the issues with the existing scheme were resolved? When can deadlines for resolving the issues be set? Why was the resolution of the McCloud issues not adequately resourced? When will the remaining contingent decision routes procedures be issued? Will the affordability test be applied to civil service pensions, and if so, when? The affordability test is a clause in the pension scheme allowing it to reduce the pension if it looks like it will become unaffordable. These are the implications of what happens. People can find themselves with a pension that is less than it should have been. The Government know that the country does not operate without our knowledgeable, hard-working civil servants, but our obligation to them does not end with their final day—it continues. We are failing those who gave so much—and this must end right now.