Pensions
1,069 bereavement cases have waited over 100 days for a pension
A Cabinet Office update on 7 September counts 1,677 Civil Service pension cases open over 100 days, 1,069 of them bereavements.
1,069 Bereavement cases over 100 days old
If a pension scheme has left you waiting months, you have three moves: keep chasing, start a formal complaint, or take it to the Pensions Ombudsman. They are not alternatives. They are rungs, and you generally have to climb them in order — which is why knowing the timescales before you start matters more than the anger does.
The trigger
Administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme moved to Capita on 1 December 2025. The Cabinet Office has published progress updates since February 2026, roughly every fortnight. The one dated 7 September 2026 counts 1,677 cases still open after more than 100 days at the end of August, and 1,069 of them are bereavement cases.
| Case type | Open over 100 days | Of those, workable |
|---|---|---|
| Bereavement | 1,069 | 266 |
| Death in service | 308 | 41 |
| Payments | 288 | 66 |
| Ill-health retirement | 12 | 1 |
The rest are waiting on information from a third party. For bereavement that is 803 cases the administrator cannot move on its own. Capita has passed 50 of the oldest — over 150 days — to a DWP surge team. Separately, about 900 retirement quotes were still outstanding at the end of August from a June backlog of roughly 4,000, with 3,087 issued.
This is one scheme, but nothing about the problem is unique to it. Any occupational scheme can lose a case, and the route out is the same whoever administers yours.
The ladder and the clock
| Step | How long they get |
|---|---|
| Complain to the administrator | no statutory clock; providers commonly work to 8 weeks |
| Stage one, internal dispute resolution | 4 months to decide, 21 days to notify |
| Stage two, where the scheme has one | a further 4 months from referral |
| The Pensions Ombudsman | you have 3 years from the event |
Watch that first row. The eight weeks people quote comes from complaining to a pension provider. An occupational scheme like the Civil Service one runs a statutory internal dispute resolution procedure instead, and each stage of that gets four months.
The Ombudsman is free and its decisions are binding. It normally expects you to have been through the scheme’s own procedure first. The three years run from the event you are complaining about, or from when you reasonably should have known about it.
Note what the two tables do together. A scheme with a two-stage procedure can lawfully take 8 months before you are entitled to escalate — on top of the hundred days you have already waited.
What the waiting is worth
The Ombudsman sets fixed awards for what it calls non-financial injustice: the distress, and the hours spent chasing.
| Category | Award |
|---|---|
| Nominal | nothing |
| Significant | £500 |
| Serious | £1,000 |
| Severe | £2,000 |
| Exceptional | over £2,000 |
That is separate from the money you are owed. A complaint should say both what you want paid and what the delay has cost you.
What the answer turns on
- Whether your scheme runs a one-stage or a two-stage procedure. That is the difference between four months and eight, and it is in the scheme booklet rather than the law.
- Whether the case is stuck with the administrator or waiting on someone else. The Cabinet Office splits its own figures exactly this way, and the second kind will not move however hard you push.
- When your three years started running. For a bereavement case that may not be the date of death, but the point at which the scheme failed to act.
MoneyHelper, run by the government’s Money and Pensions Service, will talk any of this through for free before you write anything.
If you pay into the NHS scheme, our page on NHS pension contributions shows what comes out of your pay each month, and the source for every rate on it.
Where these figures come from
- Civil Service Pension Recovery Plan update — 7 September 2026 — GOV.UK (Cabinet Office)
- Civil Service Pension Recovery Plan updates — GOV.UK (Cabinet Office)
- Pensions Ombudsman revamps approach to 'distress and inconvenience' awards — Pinsent Masons
- How to complain about a problem with your pension — MoneyHelper
- Administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme — House of Commons Library
- Dispute resolution procedures — code of practice — The Pensions Regulator
- Pension scheme complaints — nidirect
Every figure traces to a dated document — the line this section is named after. If one here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed publicly. Work out your own figures.