LTB 630/19 – Royal Mail: Pensions Service Centre – Transfer of Additional Work to Capita
No. 630/2019
30th October 2019
Dear Colleagues
ROYAL MAIL: PENSIONS SERVICE CENTRE – TRANSFER OF ADDITIONAL WORK TO CAPITA
Further to LTB 247/19 dated 18th April. Branches will be aware that in October 2017 the Cabinet Office announced it had awarded the contract for the administration of the Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme (RMSPS) to Capita. As a consequence, on 30th September 2018, the following work transferred from the Royal Mail Pensions Service Centre (PSC) to Capita:
• The calculation and payment of all pension benefits for those ex- employees and their dependants whose total pension benefits were in the Royal Pension Statutory Pension Scheme (RMSPS), the government backed pension scheme established on 1st April 2012.
The affected population comprised of the following:
• Those who had left Royal Mail, Post Office Limited and associated employers (e.g. Quadrant, RoMEC) on or before 31st March 2012.
Those employees who are still employed by Royal Mail, Post Office and associated employers or who left on or after 1st April 2012 have benefits in both the RMSPS and the Royal Mail Pension Plan (RMPP).
The administration of the RMSPS benefits for these ‘dual members’ was retained by the Royal Mail Pensions Service Centre on a temporary basis, due to Capita’s state of readiness in September 2018. Therefore Royal Mail’s PSC has continued to calculate the benefits and has passed the necessary information to Capita to make payment of the RMSPS element.
Transfer of Additional Work to Capita
The plan was for the RMSPS element to transition in full to Capita on 29th March 2019, leading to Capita taking on responsibility for the calculation of RMSPS benefits, as well as payment. However, the Cabinet Office took the decision to delay this transition for a month – until the end of April. A further decision was taken in April to delay the transition once again and there has since been an ongoing assessment of Capita’s readiness to take over this work with the associated measurement of risk. In the meantime the work has stayed with Royal Mail’s PSC. Royal Mail senior managers in the PSC have fully engaged with both Capita and the Cabinet Office during this period to seek to mitigate the impact of the transition on members.
A decision was finally made by the Cabinet Office Transitions Board at its meeting on 24th October to proceed with the transition of the RMSPS element of joint member benefits to Capita over the weekend of 9th -10th November and Capita will administer that part of member benefits with effect from Monday 11 November. To be clear, this further transfer was in the original contract awarded to Capita by Government. Essentially it was delayed until Capita was in a position to take on the work. The caution shown by the Cabinet Office in delaying this further work going to Capita was welcomed due to the problems originally experienced. It can only be hoped that this further phase in transferring the work will be less problematic. Crucially there are no further transfers of work planned for the future.
Branches should note that this further transfer doesn’t impact on jobs and nobody will be subject to TUPE as all transfers from Royal Mail to Capita were completed last year.
To Summarise, from Monday 11th November:
- Capita will administer all of the RMSPS pension benefits
- Royal Mail PSC will continue to administer the RMPP pension benefits
Branches and members should therefore be aware that our members in the RMSPS will now need to contact Capita for all queries regarding their pension. The contact details are as follows:
Email: enquiries@rmsps.co.uk
Telephone: 0333 222 0078
As far as we are aware, there won’t be any correspondence sent to members from the Cabinet Office regarding this transition of work. Therefore, Royal Mail’s PSC will be using the attached document to inform members of the change in administration if they are in the process of having their pensions calculated, or are just about to do so. Please note this document is in draft format – the transition date of Monday 11th November will be inserted into the final document. Branches & Representatives are urged to share this information with those members approaching the age of 60 who will be drawing their pension imminently.
It should also be noted that there is a contingency plan in place should there be a problem with Capita loading the data successfully over the weekend of 9th & 10th November. If there is such an issue, Royal Mail PSC will be in a position to revert to administering the RMSPS service on a temporary basis from Monday 11th November. Branches will be informed via a further LTB if this is the case.
We will be continuing to monitor Capita’s administrative performance via meetings with both Royal Mail and Capita management and also by continuing to note, collate and forward to Capita for resolution any complaints received from CWU members which come in via my office whether directly or through the Union’s general information email address.
If Branches are aware of any issues our members are experiencing with Capita, please contact lsheridan@cwu.org
Further developments will be reported.
Yours sincerely
Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary
19LTB630 Royal Mail – Pensions Service Centre – Transfer of Additional Work to Capita