A Wirral woman diagnosed with terminal cancer says she is losing precious, irreplaceable time with her family due to a major problem in the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Julie Morton, who retired from the prison service on medical grounds in August last year after doctors gave her a life expectancy of 12 months, reports that she still has not received a single piece of paperwork despite submitting all required documents to Capita, the government contractor responsible for administering the scheme.
Capita has apologized and explained it inherited a backlog of 86,000 cases (including 15,000 unread emails) but has since doubled the staff working on the scheme. Julie says she has spent hours on Capita’s phone lines trying to resolve her case, and her emails have gone unanswered.
“I’m losing sleep over this, and I’m losing precious, valuable time with my family while I fight for the money I’m entitled to,” she told the BBC. “I’m owed thousands and thousands of pounds.”
Capita took over the pension scheme, which serves 1.7 million public sector workers in the UK, at the start of December last year. In front of MPs, Capita’s chief executive, Richard Holroyd, said the backlog it inherited from the previous administrator had “overwhelmed” the company, with the 86,000 cases rising to about 120,000.
For Julie, the delay means time she cannot recover or spend with loved ones at a moment when every moment matters. She is also coping with the added stress of her parents’ dementia diagnoses.
“I have not been able to create memories with my family because I have no income,” she explained. “This is affecting not just me but my family emotionally and physically. We can’t go out or enjoy ourselves because I have only a limited weekly budget. I should be making memories with my children, grandchildren, friends, and aging parents, but I’m not.”
Julie added, “I’m not getting any joy from Capita.”
Capita issued a statement saying it is deeply sorry and taking responsibility to fix the situation. The company noted that 650 colleagues are now working on the matter—50% more than the previous provider—and that urgent cases should see service restored by the end of February, with full recovery of remaining priority cases to follow.
