Date posted: 01/05/2010

Audience: This Notice will be of particular interest to:

All Finance Managers and their payroll providers

Action: Former OPG account users need to send their Direct Debit mandates to Cabinet Office

Timing: Immediate

  1. EPN270 advised of the changes required to the payment procedure for Early Retirement Bills as a result of the new banking arrangements. All employers who were paying their bills by means of an internal transfer via their Office of Paymaster General (OPG) account were required to submit a Direct Debit form which could be applied to either their Citibank Account or an alternative commercial bank account. A large number of employers have not completed and sent their Direct Debit Mandate to Cabinet Offfice (the deadline was 31 March 2010).
  2. Please ensure that all outstanding forms are completed and forwarded to Cabinet Office as soon as possible and by Friday 25 June 2010 at the latest using the template attached to this EPN. Some points to note when completing the DD mandate are at paragraph 4 below.
  3. GBS have indicated that there may be charges applied to departments who continue to use their OPG accounts in the future. Please note that if any such charge is received by the Cabinet Office in respect of any Early Retirement payment it will be passed onto the department concerned. 
  4. When completing the DD mandate please ensure you do the following

(i) Use the attached DD template, not the one in EPN270, as there is a slight wording change in the guarantee Cabinet Office provides to you

(ii) Include 2 signatories in the “instruction to your bank” section of the form

(iii) In a cover note provide a contact name and phone number in case we need to speak to you.

  1. If you have already sent the DD mandate to Cabinet Office using the earlier DD form No further action is required from you as the wording of the guarantee is not a material issue and Cabinet Office will contact you if there are any problems.

Contacts

Enquiries about content, distribution or to receive in a different format

employerhelpdesk@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
01256 846414
Employer Helpdesk
My Civil Service Pension
Grosvenor House
Basing View
Basingstoke
RG21 4HG

Attachments

Published:
1 May 2010
Last updated:
24 April 2023