The saga continues

Members will recall that in MB 53/17, MB 68/17, MB 69/17 and MB 49/18 PCS outlined the issues experienced by the Home Office in identifying allowances from which pension contributions had not been collected, in some cases dating back as far as 2002. As previously reported PCS had highlighted the issue in 2016, but progress on getting this issue investigated had been particularly slow.

At the time of the last circulars, PCS reported that the Home Office had commissioned various parts of the department and Shared Services to identify the allowances affected and quantify the amount of the underpayment. Following our campaigning the underpayment was written off by our then Permanent Secretary, Phillip Rutnam and the only remaining element was for member’s pension statements to be updated.

Given that this was in 2018, PCS are dismayed to report that there has been little significant progress on this issue in the intervening 2 ½ years. As we head towards the date for issue of pension statements for 2021, PCS are informed that despite our continued pressure on this, the correct figures will not be shown on affected member’s pension statements. I wanted to inform members that they have not been forgotten and we continue to press for this situation to be rectified, and the issue has been raised up to and including the Permanent Secretary but the delays continue.

PCS will continue to fight for this and hopefully will be able to report some progress on this matter soon, but as this has now been ongoing for such a significant time, we are unable to give a projected resolution date.

With regard to pension statements, PCS would like to remind members that those who preserved their pensions before moving into Alpha will need to request a statement to cover the preserved element, as this is not automatically issued in the same way as the non preserved element.

Pete Wright (Group Vice President)