On the go: The Public and Commercial Services Union is advising its members to not comply with a request from the Civil Service Pension Scheme administrator and present a formal complaint if necessary.
The union, representing around 200,000 current and former civil servants, has demanded that overpayments requests totalling £2.7m are written off, and advised the members affected to use the internal dispute resolution process and, if necessary, the Pensions Ombudsman.
It was revealed in October that more than 2,000 members of the CSPS have been asked to hand back overpayments, with the largest single overpayment totalling £34,000.
In an update to members on Tuesday, PCS stated that some scheme members have received letters detailing that a repayment plan – deducting the monies out of their pension payments – will be put in place if the administrator, MyCSP, does not hear back from the individual in 28 days.
Members who have received such a letter have the right to object, the union said, as a complaint of maladministration has been filed with the ombudsman, which has not published its decision yet.
Matt Thurstan, chief executive of MyCSP and current administrator of the scheme, explained in a letter in October that the errors occurred after employers made changes to the data used to calculate pension entitlements that were not considered by the pension scheme.
He said: “For some cases, these changes have resulted in a reduction to the member’s pension, giving rise to an overpayment.”
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said:“We recognise the inconvenience this will cause some former employees, but we are obliged to recover overpayments where it will be of benefit to the taxpayer to do so.
“We must ensure pensioners are paid their entitlement. The vast majority of those impacted will see an increase to their pensions – and we offer a number of repayment options to those who have been overpaid.”
