Civil Service Pension Scheme: Administration
Kate Osborne Excerpts(1 week, 3 days ago)
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Kate Osborne (Jarrow and Gateshead East) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Fleetwood (Lorraine Beavers) for initiating this debate. I have been inundated with emails from constituents in Jarrow and Gateshead East regarding their civil service pensions and the unacceptable delays that people are facing. This is not just a delay on paperwork, but something that is causing huge detriment to the lives of many people in my constituency and across the UK. This issue could have been avoided. Indeed, I and others, including the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, the National Audit Office and the trade union PCS, all raised concerns ahead of the transfer to Capita. Unfortunately, we are now seeing those concerns play out.
On 12 January I wrote to Ministers, highlighting this and asking a number of questions. I received a response just yesterday, ahead of this debate, but it did not answer all the questions, and directed me to tell constituents to email Capita, complaining about its system. Of course they had already done that, and I contacted Capita on behalf of constituents, but I have not had a response. Of course I am not surprised, as my constituents have been ignored and have been waiting for months.
The response that I have received from the Minister says, “I hope constituents feel reassured,” but I can tell you, Ms Lewell, that they do not. It does not reassure my constituent Christine, who is 65 and retired on 2 December, but has not received her pension or a lump sum. Every time she contacts Capita, she is told that she will receive it in 10 days, yet it still has not arrived, leaving her without money for months, including over Christmas. It does not reassure my constituent Pauline, who retired back in July and has still not received anything. She is repeatedly being told that her case is with the finalisation team. It does not reassure my constituent Jackie, who took early retirement to care for her grandson and help her son, and should have started receiving payments in August but has received nothing, or Christopher, who is 60 and lives on his own, with no savings and no other income. He has now been three months without a pension payment. Another constituent, Carol, is 70 and does not know when she will get any money or even how much her monthly payment should be.
None of my constituents, or many others who have been waiting for months, are reassured. These are real people, who have been waiting for months, so I ask these questions. Will the Minister instruct Capita to prioritise the people who have been without money for months, rather than continuing to process the volunteer exit scheme? Will the Minister commit to a compensation scheme covering these delays that does not force my constituents to apply through the scheme’s own laborious internal process?
Oral Answers to Questions
Kate Osborne Excerpts(1 year, 1 month ago)
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Kate Osborne (Jarrow and Gateshead East) (Lab)
The Minister for Equalities (Dame Nia Griffith)
Conversion practices are abuse. They have no place in society and must be stopped. The Conservatives promised to ban conversion practices six years ago and failed to deliver. They then dropped it from their manifesto this summer. We are getting on with the job and working hard on legislation to deliver a trans-inclusive ban that offers protection from those harmful practices, while preserving the freedom of individuals to explore their identity and respecting the important roles of those supporting them. We will publish our draft Bill later this Session, as outlined in the King’s Speech.
Dame Nia Griffith
My hon. Friend is right that civil society plays a unique role in challenging prejudice and enabling more people to access the opportunities they deserve. A good example is Galop, the UK’s leading LGBT+ anti-violence charity, which provides a number of Government-funded support services, including on conversion practices. Its helpline is confidential and available to anyone who is at risk of, is experiencing or has been through a conversion practice.
Kate Osborne
Last week, I held a meeting in Parliament with a panel of trans people talking about their experiences of so-called conversion therapy, and their evidence was harrowing. I thank the MPs and the Minister who attended that meeting to listen to them. I am leading on a report for the Council of Europe to ban those abhorrent practices across Europe, and I am pleased to hear from the Minister that we will soon be setting out the legislation. Will the legislation be fully inclusive, without any exceptions, so that we can refer to it as best practice for all countries to use?
Dame Nia Griffith
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for her work in this field, including on the Council of Europe. I can assure her that we will deliver on our manifesto commitment to bring forward a full trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices, protecting LGBT+ people from abuse. We are committed to listening to all viewpoints and concerns with respect, and to engaging with a wide range of stakeholders, organisations and all LGBT+ communities. I was very pleased to join her at the event she mentioned. We will engage further with parliamentarians and stakeholders in the new year.