'Pension fiasco heartbreak has clouded our cruise'
Alison WilliamsMonths-long delays to civil service pension payments mean a couple's upcoming celebratory retirement cruise will end with one of them having to head back to work when they get home.
Alison Williams, 66, from Jarrow, worked for the civil service for almost 30 years and retired in January. She said she had not received any pension payments yet and her husband had postponed his own retirement to afford their mortgage.
Thousands of civil servants have been left in limbo after pension scheme operator Capita took over from company MyCSP in December, saying it took on a backlog of more than 80,000 cases.
Capita said it was working to address the backlog and apologised for the delays.
Alison Williams said her husband Eddie, 60, was meant to retire this week before departing for their holiday to the Greek islands, but he had been forced to continue working for at least another six months.
She said she had spent up to five hours on the phone to Capita to chase the money, only to be told she could not be provided with an update on her case.
Capita said it had been working to reduce the time taken to answer calls, but Williams said during her last call to the company - two weeks ago - she spent more than an hour on hold.
'Heartbreaking'
"The stress is so detrimental to everyone's health, it's unforgivable and unbelievable - all we're asking for is the money we're entitled to," she said.
"If you're going to retire, you're thinking of the future, and we were thinking of the things we've always wanted to do but never had the time or resources to do - it's heartbreaking, really."
Williams said she qualified for her state pension so was trying to "eke" it out each month, but "we've cut back on our excursions and there's only so much we can do with the money we have".
"When we come back, we've still got the bills and the mortgage - the lump sum would've cleared it," she said.
Williams said she had been in contact with other civil service pensioners who had reported borrowing money from friends and family or using credit cards to get by, and some in poor health were afraid they would die before seeing their money.
Capita took over the Public Service Pensions Scheme from company MyCSP in December and said it had inherited a backlog of 86,000 cases - 49,000 more than expected - and more than 20,000 pension quotations are still outstanding, according to the Cabinet Office.
An emergency interest-free loan system of up to £10,000 was set up in January to try and tide pensioners over until issues were resolved, which has so far paid more than £7.2m, the Cabinet Office said.
The Cabinet Office said the service levels since the contract transfer in December were "unacceptable".
"An urgent recovery plan is under way, and our immediate priority is to stabilise the service and give current and former civil servants the service they deserve," a spokesperson said.
Capita has committed to restoring a normal level of service by the end of June.
A spokesperson said it had been working with the Cabinet Office over several months to reduce the backlog.
"Additional staff have been trained and deployed, and our focus is on ensuring members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme receive the service they expect and deserve, in line with the plan agreed with the Cabinet Office," they said.
"We are sorry for the worry, distress and frustration any delays are causing."
