My wife is due to receive her deferred Civil Service pension in March. The apparent crisis at the Civil Service Pension Scheme has now been acknowledged by the government, which revealed that interest-free “hardship loans” of up to £10,000 will be offered to thousands of the worst-affected people. The pension scheme has admitted to a backlog of nearly 90,000 cases – comprising claims, valuations and other requests – that it warned could take months to resolve. He said on one occasion he had been in a queue on the phone to MyCSP for five hours without getting through. Some scheme members had been hit with shock tax bills after Capita recorded incorrect tax codes, it said.

Source: The Guardian January 29, 2026 22:00 UTC