The UK government has acknowledged that retired civil servants were let down after their pension scheme was outsourced, according to reports on problems linked to the Capita-run service. The admission follows accounts of major disruption in the administration of payments.
Some pensioners were reportedly left waiting as long as a year to receive money they were owed. The delays are said to have caused financial hardship for affected retirees, raising fresh concerns about how the outsourced system has been managed.
The issue has been described as maladministration tied to the decision to hand pension operations to an outside provider. The case puts renewed focus on the risks involved when essential public services, especially those affecting retired workers' incomes, are transferred to private contractors.
With the government now conceding that people were failed, attention is likely to remain on how the pension problems developed and what will be done to address the impact on former civil servants who have faced long waits and uncertainty.
