Exclusive An MP and former home secretary has slammed Capita for operating ‘an extremely outdated and insufficient model’, causing ‘unacceptable’ errors and delays to GP pensions.
In a letter seen by Pulse, Suella Braverman raised ‘grave concerns’ about Primary Care Support England (PCSE) and the company Capita, which has handled back-office functions for GPs such as administration of pensions since 2015.
It comes after Capita was handed an extension to its contract this month, meaning it will continue to run PCSE for another three years.
In her letter, Ms Braverman said that GPs in her constituency have been experiencing ‘an erroneous service with PCSE’, resulting in ‘numerous’ accounting errors, ‘unacceptable’ delays and ‘stonewalling’ from the complaints team at Capita.
The Conservative MP for Fareham and Waterlooville told Capita: ‘I have been informed that PCSE requires that all GPs complete a spreadsheet at the end of the working year, compiling all of their earnings from all jobs as well as appending any additional years paid.
‘PCSE then credits this money to the NHSBSA after several months’ wait and then updates their own system, meaning that any GP wishing to access their pension statement for any reason is receiving figures that are almost two years out of date.
‘Why is PCSE making its general practitioners fill in spreadsheets year on year when PCSE is the direct recipient of pension funds paid by employers?
‘Surely PCSE and Capita can compile the totals themselves, having full access to all the figures? Why should the burden be placed on GPs?’
She also raised the issue of accounting errors, which she said ‘are numerous and take months to correct’, resulting in incorrect statements and false account balances for GPs.
She added: ‘I’ve also been told about several issues with your complaints system. These include an almost total inability to respond to mandated online complaints within the purported 40-day standard, the web-based portal through which most complaints are directed not allowing users to access open complaints or their data and a repeated failure to escalate genuine complaints by the performer services team to the complaints team.’
She added that she also raised the issue with the health secretary and with the Department of Health and Social Care.
The letter added: ‘It appears to me that PCSE and Capita are operating an extremely outdated and insufficient model as regards GP pensions and I am not surprised at the low confidence expressed in the service when PCSE has a tract record of administrative failures including deleting data, reported software errors, and mistakenly refunding and removing pension contributions almost at random.’
Capita told Pulse that they could not comment on the ‘outdated and inefficient model’ as GP pensions processes ‘are the responsibility of NHS Business Services Authority and are not determined by PCSE’.
A Capita spokesperson said: ‘We have met with Suella Braverman to discuss these concerns and will continue to engage with her on this.’
A spokesperson for NHSBSA told Pulse: ‘We’ve not had sight of the letter from Suella Braverman to Capita so are unable to comment on the specific issues raised. However, we can provide more general information about the role of NHS Pensions.
‘PCSE is responsible for managing pension administration for GPs on behalf of NHS England. To administer NHS Pensions for practitioners, we need a fully up-to-date record in respect of their NHS Pension scheme membership. According to our records, for a number of members, information is not fully up to date.
‘This is because practitioners must submit their Annual Certificate(s) of Pensionable Profits to Primary Care Support England (PCSE). PCSE then need to update their record with us.’
GPs have experienced numerous problems with Capita’s performance, such as delays with the processing of their pensions at the start of retirement, a data breach caused by a cyber-attack, and reports of ‘missing’ GP pension records.
A major Pulse investigation in 2022 revealed the scale of issues faced by GPs because of Capita’s poor administration.
Pulse has reached out to NHS England for comment.
“You are bad at doing your job but we will extend the contract by another 3 years.” Makes lots of sense!
How unfortunate she didn’t do anything about it for all those years when it might have mattered what she thought. Who maintained Capita and PCSE for the previous ten years?
As Suella Braverman is the worst Home Secretary in living memory, I’d pay no attention to anything she says on any matter….