The ex-civil servants unable to pay bills or retire as scandal engulfs their pensions – and the retiree who has FINALLY received his money

A former prison officer whose retirement dreams were nearly thwarted by the civil service pension scandal has finally received his money, after This is Money and the Daily Mail highlighted his case.

After Jason Gould retired at the end of December, he was left without either an income or his anticipated lump sum due to the crisis engulfing one of Britain’s most generous pension schemes.

The 58-year-old from Norfolk and his wife Lisa, 62, were thrust into rent arrears, could not afford to pay off debts and suffered sleepless nights over whether their plan to retire to Spain would be ruined.

Mr Gould says it was ‘unexpected and extremely welcome’ when he was contacted and told his lump sum would be paid within days and his pension and arrears would arrive at the end of this month.

‘It feels like a huge cloud has been removed and maybe I can now start enjoying my retirement,’ he told us.

But it is unclear whether his experience is a sign that incoming pension administrator Capita, which took over on 1 December, is getting to grips with the mess or not yet.

The civil service scheme was already mired in problems when Capita took over from MyCSP, a partnership between employee partners who own 25 per cent and the financial services company Equiniti.

Other cases which This is Money and the Daily Mail have reported on recently, or are in a dossier we handed to Capita, are still not resolved.

And nor are three further, distressing cases involving bereavement, serious ill health and hardship which we reveal below today.

Why is the civil service pension scheme in chaos

A customer service meltdown at the civil service pension scheme has led to a 120,000-case backlog, with many people left without an income for months, forcing the Government to organise emergency loans for its ex-employees.

The chaos has prompted many messages to our inbox from present and former civil servants, who say letters and phone calls about unpaid pensions are going unanswered, and from grieving families whose loved ones’ finances cannot be sorted out.

We have also spoken to readers who could not get a pension quote to prove their future income to mortgage providers, in one case putting a house purchase under threat and in another making a remortgage deal more expensive.

The civil service scheme is considered gold standard because members receive final salary or career average salary-linked pensions, which are guaranteed until they die.

Capita bosses appeared before MPs at the public accounts committee at Westminster last week and were castigated over ‘heartbreaking’ cases of hardship caused by the scandal.

Two senior executives, Richard Holroyd and Chris Clements of Capita Public Services, apologised and promised to solve the problems.

Mr Holroyd said: ‘My apologies to all members of the scheme. We own this problem and we will fix it.’ The PAC hearing recording can be seen on the Parliament website, and a full statement from Capita is below.

During their appearance, Mr Holroyd and Mr Clements blamed previous operator MyCSP for the huge backlog of cases they inherited – including more than 15,000 unread emails.

Mr Holroyd said receiving so many unread emails in a handover was ‘unheard of’, and the firm had also discovered corrupted data and a cache of 12,000 ‘voluntary exit’ cases which had not been loaded onto the system.

My fiancé is seriously ill and I have no income

Sally Sheldrake-Ormrod, 56, who is nursing her seriously ill partner, claimed her pension last November but is still waiting for word about when her payments will start.

She says she spent four hours trying to phone Capita over the course of one day, but kept getting cut off and eventually gave up.

Ms Sheldrake-Ormrod, who worked for the civil service for 35 years and lives with her 62-year-old fiancé in Cambridgeshire, says: ‘I retired in January last year, chose to defer my pension and then my circumstances changed.

‘My partner is seriously ill, potentially terminal. I am now without income and two of us are trying to live off my partner’s Royal Navy pension.’

She says her husband to be is now out of hospital and at home with her, but while he was there she had to spend money she could barely afford on taxis to visit him because she doesn’t drive.

‘Capita are just appalling. How they get these contracts is beyond me,’ she says. ‘This is people’s lives. I have got savings, we are not desperate. But I do object to having to live off my savings.’

Bereaved mother prevented from sorting out her late daughter’s finances

Teresa Cook’s daughter, who was a civil servant for more than two decades, died aged 44 last summer.

Mrs Cook, 73, is nominated to receive her daughter’s pension benefits, and she completed all the paperwork last September.

She wants the details in order to settle her daughter’s financial affairs, notify HMRC and apply for probate.

‘I have been told on numerous occasions that the case will be escalated and will be dealt with as soon as possible,’ she says. ‘I wrote a letter of complaint over three weeks ago and sent it by special delivery. It has been received and signed for but I have not received a reply.’

Mrs Cook, a retired family business owner from Surrey, adds regarding the case backlog at Capita: ‘When any government awards these contracts they have a duty to ensure that the scheme is being run efficiently and in the members’ interests.

‘I can’t believe it. They knew for two years they were going to take over these pensions. It’s appalling, for everyone who is involved, we’re just lost for words. It’s not about the money. I can’t sort out her things, or get probate.’

I can’t afford to run my car because of pension delay

Bev Snowden, 68, applied for his civil service pension last October and is getting short of money to pay essential bills while he waits for his payments to start.

Mr Snowden says he has spent a total of eight hours waiting to get through to Capita on the phone, but he only succeeded on one occasion when he started at 8am and spent three hours and 40 minutes in the queue.

The former self-employed payroll consultant, who lives in Cheshire, worked for the civil service earlier in his career.

He says he is currently living on his state pension and getting help from family. 

But he has been unable to pay his council tax since December, and is about to take his car off the road because he cannot afford car tax or insurance, or the MOT which is due shortly.

Mr Snowden told us that as his family lives half an hour’s drive away he will be unable to visit them, and he won’t be able to go shopping.

‘This is totally unacceptable. I am in so much debt as I cannot pay my bills. I think it’s disgusting. I don’t know how Capita could have been given this contract when their record with the [MoD] Fire and Rescue Service was abysmal.

‘If it wasn’t for the support of my family lending me money I would have really struggled to survive.’

Will people suffering financial harm get redress?

Mr Holroyd held out the hope of compensation for people caught up in the chaos in cases where Capita was found to be at fault, though it would be a matter for the Cabinet Office where problems were down to MyCSP.

Cases where Capita might pay compensation could ‘potentially’ include Jason Gould, This is Money and the Daily Mail were told by Mr Holroyd when we pressed this case with him outside the committee room.

After Mr Gould subsequently received news he would get his pension, we asked Capita again if compensation would be forthcoming and were told it would be a matter for the Cabinet Office.

For his part, he told us last week: ‘I did watch this morning’s public accounts committee’s ‘grilling’ of the Capita executives and found the lack of due diligence carried out during the two years prior to taking over the contract to be staggering.

‘Something else that surprised me was the apparent lack of financial penalties that Capita will face because of this and the fact that Cabinet Office staff (civil servants) are being used by Capita, but not being paid by Capita.

‘Another example of public money being spent on rescuing private companies that are clearly out of their depth. This is something I witnessed repeatedly during my time in the prison service.’

Mr Gould and his wife Lisa, who has just retired as well after a 44-year nursing career, thanked the Daily Mail and This is Money for our efforts to highlight his situation.

He told us: ‘This news has really lifted a huge weight from us and we now look forward to a brighter future.’

What do Capita, MyCSP and the Government say?

MyCSP, a partnership between employee partners who own 25 per cent and the company Equiniti, said: ‘MyCSP completed a comprehensive handover of the pension scheme with the new provider which was overseen by the Cabinet Office.

‘All outstanding work items, including items paused during the agreed blackout period, were fully disclosed, discussed and reviewed with Cabinet Office senior management prior to commencement of the handover process.

‘Over the course of its tenure administering the scheme, MyCSP consistently met the service levels set by the Cabinet Office as independently confirmed in the National Audit Office’s assessment of performance.

‘From 2017 to 2025, MyCSP met 1,425 of 1,444 (98.7 per cent) of CSPS key service level performance measures and 5,342 of 5,444 (98.1 per cent) of other non-key service Levels. Overall, MyCSP processed 99.7 per cent of all individual requests within agreed service levels.’

The Cabinet Office reiterated its previous statement, which said: ‘The service levels following the move to Capita have been 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.

‘An interest-free loan is being made available via departments to provide immediate financial support where it is needed.’

Have you been affected? Email: editor@thisismoney.co.uk