Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what consideration has been given to (a) varying or (b) suspending the Civil Service Pension Scheme's four month quotation process.

The four month quotation process is a guideline, not a rule. Therefore no consideration has been given to changing this process.

To specifically prioritise cases where members are facing urgent health or financial circumstances, the Department has taken the following direct steps:

• Health Circumstances: All outstanding ill-health retirement and death-in-service cases have been placed under strict, individual 'hypercare' tracking. We have deployed a cross-government surge team of over 140 civil servants, alongside experts from the Government Actuary’s Department, to bypass standard queues and directly clear the oldest and most complex cases. We have also established dedicated virtual surgeries for MPs and caseworkers to escalate urgent and exceptional cases directly to our recovery taskforce.

• Financial Hardship: To provide immediate financial support to those who may need it, including those who have left under the compensation scheme, arrangements are in place for interest-free bridging loans of £5,000 and up to £20,000 in exceptional cases - to most recent retirees facing payment delays. This is alongside interim lump sum payments being made to provide immediate funds to retiring members.

• Other Exceptional Circumstances: These are considered for prioritisation and ‘hypercare’ tracking on a case-by-case basis.