FAO: All Members
Subject: Ad hoc early retirement estimates no longer provided
Action Required: Consider proactively advising your employees of this change
Timing: Immediate
As of 27 October 2014, Civil Service Pensions no longer provides members with early retirement estimates on request.
There has been an increased take-up of members requesting this discretionary service, which is deflecting MyCSP resources from delivering core scheme services at an extremely busy time. MyCSP is still going through significant change, (embedding the new Compendia administration system and implementing the transfer of the pensioner payroll from Capita Hartshead, as well as ongoing preparations for the ‘alpha’ pension scheme launch).
However, MyCSP will continue to provide early retirement pension estimates in special circumstances, such as to support a mortgage or loan application.
Processing the high volume of requests also places demands on employers and shared services organisations, because MyCSP has to analyse and confirm the required member data in the majority of cases.
You may wish to consider proactively advising your employees of this change, to manage their expectations and direct them to the estimator tools on the Civil Service Pensions website, where most (but not all) members can now work out their own early retirement estimates: www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/member-calculators
Please note that this change does not affect the provision of Annual Benefit Statements, or formal quotes for agreed retirements or exit schemes.