Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants who have retired in the last 12 months and applied for their pension have experienced delays in receiving payments.

MyCSP was spun-out as a mutual joint venture in May 2012. Mutualising MyCSP was good for staff, taxpayers and for the service they provide to pensioners. MyCSP will almost halve the cost of administering pensions within a decade, while improving services which were variable before. Employees of MyCSP have benefited through dividends, which they have received in both years since mutualisation. Staff survey figures show rising staff engagement and a decline in sickness absence.

Legacy problems were inherited from the previous administrator. MyCSP experienced exceptionally high volumes of calls following the transfer of pensioner payroll administration to MyCSP from the previous supplier. Call volumes have now declined substantially and MyCSP have switched all available resources to dealing with outstanding cases.

The overwhelming majority of 658,000 existing pensioners were paid accurately and MyCSP is working to reduce delays and clear any remaining backlog of work as quickly as possible.

MyCSP processes all pension awards by the due date where it holds all the necessary information from the employer and member needed to calculate the award.

Between 01 October 2013 and 30 September 2014 MyCSP processed 17,380 retirement awards. Of those, 16,865 (97%) were processed on time. In some cases, delays resulted from incorrect information being provided to MyCSP.