Kirkby woman burning through savings amid pension crisis
Lisa Blundell of Kirkby says she has gone eight months without pension payments and is using her savings to cover living costs. The Cabinet Office responded to…
Lisa Blundell says she is burning through her savings as the civil service pension crisis leaves her without payments in Kirkby. She has not been paid for eight months and has received no assurance about when her pension entitlement will arrive.
The delay is part of wider problems affecting thousands of members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme, which manages pensions for 1.7 million public sector workers. Some have been unable to access lump sums or regular payments since Capita took over scheme administration in December last year.
The consequences are immediate for Blundell: she says she is worried about meeting household costs as colder weather approaches and has had to put plans on hold. The scheme’s delays are also affecting retirees across the country, according to the Liverpool Echo.
Complaint draws Cabinet Office response
Blundell retired from the civil service in March this year after 24 years of service, she previously told the Liverpool Echo. She said her pension application was submitted in September 2025, but the company had not resolved her request by August, when she was already missing six months of pension payments.
“I'm now missing six months pension, and Capita cannot tell me when I will receive it either,” she said.
The Cabinet Office wrote to Blundell on October 7 in response to a complaint that Capita had miscalculated her entitlement period. She said the pension quote she received did not account for approximately ten years of service and contributions.
The government told her it was taking the matter seriously. It pointed to £9.9m in contract payments withheld from Capita and a Remedial Adviser appointed at the company’s expense.
Blundell said she appreciated the government’s intervention and monitoring, but remained dissatisfied with Capita’s handling of the calculation. “It is another example of their 'can kicking'. They just need to work out a quote, they shouldn't need to investigate anything,” she said.
Backlog remains a major hurdle
Capita was awarded a £239m contract by the previous Conservative government. The company has apologized to affected members and said it inherited a backlog of approximately 86,000 cases. By February, the backlog had risen to more than 120,000 cases, according to the Liverpool Echo.
The government introduced a recovery plan during that month, deploying 150 civil servants and 100 additional Capita staff to help clear cases and prioritize urgent ones. About 4,000 emergency loans have also been made to struggling scheme members, but Blundell is not eligible.
That distinction matters for people left without regular pension income: the emergency support described in the report does not reach every member facing delays. Blundell says the approaching winter and Christmas spending have sharpened the pressure on her household.
“The heating and electricity bills are about to jump up during the colder months, and then there's all of the costs associated with Christmas,” she said. “We've just had to tell people we won't be able to do very much this year as I still haven't been paid after all this time, and I'm just burning through savings now to get by.”
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk
