Civil service pensions- what a fucking farce!

This is not the thread for an anti-CS rant. Start a separate thread and stop derailing.

They’re an absolute shower of shit.

I have been trying to get them to answer some basic errors on my deferred for the last 2 years. They had written to me when I left the CS but apparently had no record of the letter they sent so made everything up from that date. I’ve had to send them scans of that letter 7 times and it’s like I’m stuck in an interminable loop of being ignored and then they email and I have to start the whole fucking thing all over again.

Capita have also had 2 major data breaches over the last couple of years. They are constantly advertising for staff and I’ve heard they are not a good company to work for. Working for a pensions company myself there is not one decent administration company out there that can deal with the volume of work

You know fuck all.

I’m one of your maligned “office staff”. I regularly work 10-11 hour days. I did two jobs for four months, for no extra pay, after one of my colleagues had a breakdown.

I care deeply about the work I do and about improving things for the people who have to use our services. I’m certainly not here for the pay or the benefits!!

That’s such a shitty thing to say.

CS pensions are basically deferred salary.

Civil Servants get paid massively less than equivalent responsibility jobs in the private sector. People take that hit for various reasons, including wanting to work for the public good, but also because they’re happy to have their salary deferred to get a decent pension.

The CS is very competitive at all levels so it’s not a case of “can’t get any other job” either.

Says an office wallah!

The adrenaline and immediacy of the front line makes it exciting. Whether it's on a counter or a fire engine. You never know what happens next. It's life.

You'd never understand!!

Well you dont sound as if you know the CS inside out. If you did you would know there are thousands of office workers on low enough wages to claim UC for a start

Capita have been responsible for shit show after shit show. Why on earth are they still being hired?

Why don't the front line people get an office job then if it's such a cushy life, or is it too unfulfilling for them?
Nothing to do with CS pensions at all.

HM Prison and Probation Service staff who work directly with prisoners or offenders

HM Revenue & Customs staff in roles involving direct contact with taxpayers or compliance visits

Department for Work and Pensions staff in Jobcentre or benefits-facing roles

DVSA driving examiners and enforcement staff

Lab techs, inspectors, researchers and scientists
across a number of departments and ministries

All civil servants. Plus many many more frontline operational staff. All getting terrible service from Capita and very much deserve the pensions they have to make up for the shocking conditions and pay

You have no idea what you are talking about. Capita are terrible at administering private sector pension schemes too, y'know...

True but as I said above they take their lead from who pays them.

I know the CS inside out.

Front line workers = hard working strivers taking the stress of dealing with the public home every night.

Office workers doing not so much slowly, counting the hours to home time. Actually not home time as they all WFH.

I maintain you could halve the non front line staff, pay a bit more, and actually increase productivity. No one I've met in the front line disagrees with this!

Yes, and Capita didn’t pay for those extra staff. The taxpayer did. I think Capita has started to pick up the bill for the surge team now… I hope!

I know of someone who died in service in 2024. His widow has still not received a penny.

Don’t comment when you don’t understand - Capita runs civil service pensions. It’s not run by civil servants!

Sorry you’re going through this OP, it’s really difficult on top of losing your Mum. Unfortunately there have been significant issues with Capita - I am a civil servant and through my employer have heard of the issues. This includes people waiting months to actually receive their pension after retirement. It’s awful. Hope you get it sorted soon.

Yup. Absolute chaos. I have former colleagues who've retired and have been surviving for 6 months or more on emergency loans from their former employers because Capita have got nowhere with paying out their pensions. And I have current colleagues who would have been former colleagues by now, but for the fact that they've seen the shitshow pensions debacle and decided to postpone their retirement until it's sorted!

It’s a shambles since Capita took over. It’s not normally like this, but it’s a complete shit show since they took over and the Government have had to loan many staff to help them get through this mess. We have had a few retire without even an email from them, let alone a quote.

I think the days of us getting a good, reliable service from big organisations is over.

Crapita have never provided anyone with a good, reliable service 😂

They cut costs and their clients (sadly in this case the taxpayer) wonder, wide-eyed, why the service was shite.

The Civil Service Pensions farce is NOTHING to do with ‘internal job preservation’. It’s a third party private company who won the contract and are a pile of shit. But why let the facts get in the way of having a go at civil servants.