Committee publication · Correspondence · 21 May 2026
Letter from the Prospect Deputy General Secretary relating to Dealing with Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) member complaints about the impact of the unacceptable performance of scheme administrators, 15 May 2026
From: Public Accounts Committee
Inquiry: Civil service pensions
Summary
Prospect's Deputy General Secretary urges the Public Accounts and Public Administration committees to scrutinise Cabinet Office plans for handling tens of thousands of complaints from Civil Service Pension Scheme members affected by administrator failures. The letter flags inadequate resourcing for complaints processing, concerns that compensation caps may be too low for exceptional cases, and uncertainty over liability allocation as critical issues requiring committee attention before their joint meeting on 7 July 2026.
Key findings
- Unprecedented scale: 8,500 retired members awaited delayed pensions as of 1 December 2025; 7,000 dependents' pensions outstanding; 23,000 delayed retirement quotes in queue on 23 April. Tens of thousands of scheme members have grounds to claim financial and non-financial losses.
- Cabinet Office received only 339 IDR Stage 1 and 143 Stage 2 appeals in 2024–25; processing the expected unprecedented caseload will require a significant multiple of those resources, for which Prospect has seen no evidence of planning.
- Concern that Cabinet Office officials envisage compensation for non-financial losses capped at £2,000, aligned with Pensions Ombudsman guidance for 'exceptional' cases, but the scale of delays (many months without pensions) may justify higher awards in thousands of instances.
- Uncertainty over liability allocation between previous and current administrators and how Cabinet Office will ensure payment to members, with potential total liability of tens of millions of pounds across thousands of complaints.
- Complaints handling and compensation payment must be resolved to restore member confidence; service recovery and pension processing alone will not fully remedy the position of affected members.
Tone
CriticalTopics
Key actors
Prospect (trade union), Steve Thomas (Prospect Deputy General Secretary), Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (PAC Chair), Simon Hoare MP (PACAC Chair), Cabinet Office, MyCSP (former scheme administrator), Pensions Ombudsman
Notable line
“Confidence in the management of the scheme will not be restored if thousands of members who waited months for delayed pensions, then must wait years for determination of their complaints and payment of compensation.”
Key Quotes
“… the handling of members' complaints has the potential to cause significant additional distress and bring management of the scheme into further disrepute”
“A member who incurred financial losses, and / or significant distress and inconvenience, as a result of months-long delays in receiving their pension will not be made whole again until their pension is paid and they are appropriately compensated.”
“… a significant multiple of the resources available to process Stage 1 and Stage 2 complaints in 2024-25 will be needed to deal with the unprecedented caseload the scheme is about to receive”
“… the unprecedented scale and nature of the problems incurred by scheme members means that many will have been impacted in ways that would previously have been considered exceptional”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗