Employer Knowledge Article

Audience:

• Pension leads

• HR managers

Summary

• We will distribute Annual Benefit Statements (ABS) from 14 July and Pension Savings Statements (PSS) from 1 August.

• ABS distribution will finish by 31 August 2025.

• PSS distribution will finish by 6 October 2025.

• Production of Remediable Service Statements (RSS) for members affected by the Remedy is also planned.

Actions:

• Note the distribution dates and how members can view or download their statements.

• Be aware of the support available to members and employers.

• Review the Management Information (MI) from the Scheme Administrator.

• Work with the Scheme Administrator to ensure all eligible members receive their statements.

• Note how the 2015 Remedy affects the distribution of this year’s Annual Benefit Statements (ABS), Remediable Service Statements (RSS), and Pension Savings Statements (PSS).

Timing:

• Immediate

Detail:

• Use this table to keep track of key dates for the 2025 Annual Statements exercise:

About ABS distribution

• ABS are issued to the majority of eligible members by 31 August each year.

• In a small number of cases, we may not be able to produce an ABS or Alternative Scheme Option Statement for Remedy-impacted members. Please see the ‘ABS and the 2015 Remedy’ section below for more information.

• ABS will be available to view online via the Pension Portal. Members can download and print their ABS from the Pension Portal should they wish to.

• If a member has requested a paper copy, they will receive it either at their home address or, in some cases, via the employer for security reasons.

• Guidance on registering and logging into the Pension Portal is available on our website.

• The ABS Distribution schedule shows when statements have become available to view in the Portal.

• Members who are registered for the Portal will also receive an email notification from the Scheme via GOV.UK Notify, sent to the email address used to register, letting them know when their statement is ready.

• If the schedule shows that a statement is available to view but it has not yet appeared in the Portal, please do not worry. We may need to carry out additional checks or they may fall into those impacted, noted above. We advise members to check back later.

Eligibility criteria

• To receive an ABS, a member must: be an active member or active pensioner of the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) when the statement is produced; and 
  have been an active member or active pensioner of the CSPS on 31 March 2025.

• In addition, you must have provided the Scheme Administrator with complete pensionable earnings data for alpha members for the 2024/25 scheme year.

About PSS distribution

• To receive a 2024/25 PSS, a member must meet at least one of the following criteria.

  • They exceeded the 2024/25 Annual Allowance limit of £60,000*.

  • They earned over £100,000 in the 2024/25 scheme year.

  • They requested a PSS before the annual statements exercise.

• If an individual’s adjusted income is over £260,000, they will be affected by a tapered Annual Allowance. Guidance on calculating tapered Annual Allowance is available on the "Check if you have unused annual allowances on your pension savings" page at gov.uk.

• Statements will be issued by 6 October 2025.

• Members must use the Pension Input Amounts (PIA) shown in their statements, along with HMRC’s Pension Annual Allowance tool at gov.uk, to work out if they owe tax.

• Any tax charge for the 2024/25 year should be reported through self-assessment.

ABS and the 2015 Remedy

• The 2015 Remedy (McCloud) legislation took effect on 1 October 2023.

• Affected members have been moved back into their Legacy schemes (classic, classic plus, premium or nuvos) for the Remedy period (1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022).

• In some cases, due to the complexity of individual records, it may not be possible to produce a full and complete RSS. We will write to any members affected by this to let them know.

• More information about the 2015 Remedy and RSS is available at:
  2025 Annual Benefit Statements (ABS) and Remediable Service Statements (RSS) – Civil Service Pension Scheme.

ABS Management Information (MI) for employers

• After ABS distribution, the Scheme Administrator will provide MI showing which members in your organisation received statements. This will be sent to you by 12 September 2025.

• If you believe any members were missed, please contact the SEABS mailbox by the MI query deadline.

PSS Management Information (MI) for employers

• The Scheme Administrator will provide indicative PSS MI to help you arrange tax awareness sessions for affected members.

• MyCSP will deliver PSS tax awareness sessions this year.

• Employers can arrange Group Sessions for their employees (with up to 50 delegates per session) by emailing the Tax Support mailbox.

• Individual places can also be booked on the open Group Tax Awareness sessions available.

• Once PSS distribution is complete, you will receive final MI.

• If you think any members earning over £100,000 are missing from the PSS MI, contact the SEABS mailbox by the MI query deadline.

Support for members and employers

If you need help, please use the contacts below to get support quickly:

Contacts

You can find electronic copies of the Employer Pension Guide, all current EPNs and forms in the Employer section of the Civil Service Pensions website at www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk

This notice is for employers and should not be issued to scheme members.

Members can find information about their pension by visiting the scheme website.