My last two months of pension payments have not been paid by Teachers’ Pensions. Its customer service line told me this was because someone with my name had died, and they thought it might be me. They said no check is made as to address, date of birth or National Insurance number, yet I needed to confirm my identity in several ways. I was told I must wait 10 working days before my missing payments will be credited, which will leave me struggling to pay my next credit card bill.
ME, Market Harborough
Your bizarre predicament, which deprived you of income over Christmas, is sadly familiar. Last year, I exposed how Capita, which administers Teachers’ Pensions, regularly matches beneficiaries to names in the death register, even if personal details differ, with the sanction of the Department for Education (DfE).
Beneficiaries are supposed to receive coyly worded letters asking them to get in touch if their circumstances have changed. What they are really asking is: “Are you dead?”
The letters don’t mention that those who don’t confirm within 28 days that they’re still breathing will lose their payments. The DfE previously told me that this was to “avoid causing upset”.
Incredibly, from then on, the pensioner may be forced to confirm every year that they are not the same dead stranger because, in a potential breach of GDPR rules, the system does not log a disproved match.
Last year the DfE told me it would investigate potential improvements. But it seems nothing has changed: you didn’t even get the letters. Capita insists two were sent a fortnight apart and payments were stopped two weeks after the second. No further overtures were made to ensure you had received them, or were not away, or in hospital.
It admits that there may be “some conflicting elements” between the deceased and the beneficiary, but the latter is still required to confirm they are not dead, or else lose their income. The £1,600 you are owed was paid without apology soon after I contacted Capita.
Meanwhile, BF in Cheshire is one of a number of teachers whose divorce is being delayed by Teachers’ Pensions. She requested the cash value of her pension (the “CETV”), without which the divorce settlement can’t be signed off and, nearly four months later, is still awaiting the crucial figure. “This jeopardises the sale of the marital home and my onward purchase,” she says. “Whenever I phone, they can’t provide an update or timeline.”
Teachers’ Pensions is among the public sector pension schemes wrestling with a large backlog due to legislative changes introduced in 2023 in how calculations are made.
The DfE confirmed that more than 1,300 were still waiting for valuations last month, while more applications pour in. Capita says that it hopes to have most of the backlog cleared this month.
Your CETV arrived the day after I got in touch. Capita lost its bid to renew its contract last year, and the scheme will be taken over by Tata Consultancy Services in October.
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