Teachers’ pensions delays ‘unacceptable’, says minister

Delays in the administration of teachers’ pensions are “unacceptable”, the schools minister has said, as a union called on the government to “step in”.

Problems with the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) have received renewed national attention after MPs heard about similar issues with civil service pensions. Both are run by the outsourcing giant Capita.

Tens of thousands of retired teachers are still waiting for statements telling them how much they could be owed following public sector pension reforms in the 2010s.

The McCloud remedy came after a 2018 court judgment ruled “transitional protection” reforms three years earlier had treated younger workers unfairly.

Freedom of information requests have revealed tens of thousands of retired teachers are still awaiting remediable service statements (RSS), telling them how much they are owed and asking them to choose between a legacy scheme or a reformed option.

‘Complex change’

Speaking to Schools Week on Wednesday, schools minister Georgia Gould said the McCloud judgment “was a massive, big, complex change, and there are delays in complex cases. It’s unacceptable for teachers.”

“I know how tough it is,” she added, saying she had received many letters from teachers and was “carefully monitoring” the situation. “We’re putting more resources in to support it.”

Schools Week has revealed how some retired teachers have died before receiving their statements, while many others are in ill health.

At the National Education Union’s conference last month, Liverpool joint secretary Graham Copsey described the TPS as “a mess”.

“It’s not fit for purpose. It’s failing teachers.”

Beneath posts on TPS social media pages, dozens of frustrated former teachers beg for updates and describe the difficulties they are facing.

Katina McCormick retired in 2018 and has been waiting three years for her RSS.

“It’s just horrendous,” she told Schools Week. “I get days where it really won’t go out of my head. I don’t want to be one of those that dies before I get it.

“Whether it’s £1,000 or whatever, I need it and I’m entitled to it. I’m not in the best of health. I don’t need the stress.”

Union demands action on pensions

Kate Atkinson, the national secretary for the school leaders’ union NAHT, called on the DfE and Capita to “take urgent, transparent action” to clear the backlog.

“Thousands of dedicated professionals, who have spent their lives shaping the future of our children, are now being left in financial limbo at the very moment they should be able to plan their retirement or financial futures with confidence.”

She said members who contacted  TPS reported “waiting for hours on the phone, or weeks for email responses and … often don’t get the help they need”.

She had tried to contact TPS herself. “You are number 48 in the queue, then you get cut off before you get through. It is so frustrating.”

Atkinson said the DfE, as manager of the scheme, “must step in”.

“Teachers deserve a pension system that works – and right now, it isn’t working.”

“We are urging the government to act now. These issues are causing real harm to real people – and they will not be solved by waiting and hoping for improvement.”

Other pensions affected

The delays to teachers’ pensions statements can have huge ramifications for other elements of members’ finances – and other pension schemes.

Pank Patel, the former regional schools commissioner for the West Midlands, told Schools Week the issue with teachers’ pensions meant he was unable to access his civil servant’s pension.

Having also served as a headteacher and academy leader, he retired five years ago and has been drawing his teacher’s pension.

Now 60, he wants to access his civil service pension. But he must first obtain a transitional tax-free amount certificate (TTFAC) from the TPS, which cannot be issued until he has received and returned his RSS.

Patel applied for his TTFAC in December and has since contacted the TPS and DfE repeatedly asking for a timeframe, but none has been given.

He said he wants to access his lump sum so he can help his daughter get on the property ladder and ease his son’s “crippling” student loan.

“We would desperately like to help our children, but we just can’t,” he said. “That’s the one pot of money I had set aside to access at 60, and I can’t have it.”

‘Stress and anxiety’

Patel has complained repeatedly, but has been left deeply frustrated by a lack of firm answers or timeframe for responses.

He eventually received a response from the education secretary after his MP contacted her, but was disappointed by its contents.

Bridget Phillipson’s response, dated March 18, said: “Unfortunately, I cannot provide a timescale for when your constituent’s RSS and therefore when his TTFAC will be issued. However I can assure you that my officials have raised Mr Patel’s case with TP and are working to get this issued to him as soon as possible.”

Capita is understood to be reviewing Patel’s case.

He said a lack of any timeframe has “caused a lot of stress and anxiety”.

“I’ve got a pension that is just sitting there and I can’t access a single penny of it. I’ve hit a complete block.”

No deadline in sight

Schools Week previously revealed that as of last March, 77,600 retired teachers had not yet received their McCloud remedy statements. Nearly 6,000 had died without receiving their payment.

A further FOI revealed that as of mid-November, 69,700 were still waiting. This means that between March and November, cases had been settled at a rate of 987 a month.

Clearing the backlog will not finish until September 2031 if progress continues at that rate.

To add to the chaos, the handover of the £233 million TPS contract from Capita to new provider Tata Consultancy Services, due to take place last October, has been delayed twice.

A new government contract shows the DfE is set to pay the professional services network PwC £260,000 plus VAT to “support the safe and effective transition” of TPS administration.

Gould told Schools Week the DfE was “really determined to get [the transition] right”. “We need to be absolutely assured that there is going to be no issues for teachers, so we will take that very carefully.”

PwC is to provide “independent transition assurance and contingency planning support” for the TPS transition.

Its contract will run from April until the end of October, but may be extended until the end of January.

‘Delivery is being phased’

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We understand and recognise the disruption that delays have caused for some teachers”.

The McCloud remedy was “one of the most significant changes to public service pensions in recent years, and delivery is being phased to ensure accuracy and fairness for members due to a complex process.

“We expect administrators to handle member queries and payments as quickly as possible, and we are working closely with the scheme administrator to monitor performance and address any emerging issues.”

They added that Capita “had been implementing an IT development to reduce processing times on these cases, but unfortunately it has not produced the intended results”. They gave no further details.

Capita apologised for the “inconvenience and stress” the RSS delays had caused, adding: “We continue to work closely with the DfE to ensure cases are progressed correctly and in line with scheme rules”.

But it did not respond to questions about any timeframe.

Capita said the McCloud remedy us “a complex” programme. Issuing RSS “is therefore being carried out in stages due to the complexity of the remedy and the volume of affected members and is being delivered in line with agreed plans”.