Question
In North East Fife, civil service pension delays are not the only issue. I have previously spoken in this House of the “Jobs Forgotten” campaign for retired former police officers who are dealing with the failings of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, so I found the comments from the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart) interesting. My question to the Minister is this: one of the things my office is finding is that, just as they manage to sort out somebody’s case, a new one comes in, so I appreciate the interest and focus on complex cases, but are we not just firefighting if we are not stopping new cases emerging in the first instance?
Answer
There is a focus on complex cases, but alongside that Capita is working to do incoming cases on a live basis, particularly those relatively easy to resolve. It is actually processing more cases than it is getting in, but because of the significant backlog and the high number of complex cases, it still will not feel like a good service to many members.
Verdict: AMBER (38/100)
The question asked what the department is doing to prevent pension failings from arising in the first place. The reply gives a concrete, direct answer about how incoming cases are handled, saying Capita processes them on a live basis and clears more cases than it receives. However, that describes managing the existing backlog rather than addressing the root causes the question was about, so the prevention part is left largely unanswered. A member of the public would likely need to ask again specifically about what changes are being made to stop these failings happening.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is the Government doing to prevent new cases of pension failings from emerging in the first place, rather than only resolving existing complex cases? | Partially Addressed | Direct | The reply names a concrete mechanism, Capita processing incoming cases on a live basis and clearing more cases than it receives, which addresses the flow of new cases. However, it concerns managing the incoming backlog rather than preventing pension failings from arising in the first place, so the root-cause part of the question is left unanswered. Statement 4 only describes the service experience and does not bear on prevention. |