Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the time taken in the (a) processing and (b) payment of pension lump sums for teachers retiring at the end of the academic year.

Capita, as the Teachers’ Pension Scheme administrator, has confirmed that payments were completed on 1 September 2025, for those teachers who met the 18 August 2025 deadline for submitting their 2024/25 academic year retirement application.

Applications received after the 18 August deadline are being processed as quickly as possible by Capita and should be paid within 10 working days of receiving the application, provided that all information is available to process.

The department has contractual Service Level Agreements for the processing of these payments and continually monitors Capita’s performance to ensure that members’ pension lump sums are paid on time.