Dear Colleague,
1. HQ Staff Responsibilities
2. Parliamentary event to launch the LLA Pensioners’ Manifesto
3. McCloud Remedy update – Summer 2023
4. Group Newsletters – guidance on content and formatting
5. The Pensioner magazine – group, regional and branch submissions
deadlines
6. Update on our meeting with the Cabinet Office
7. Advice for Groups considering closure
8. Working Party on future AGM arrangements
9. We are looking to recruit a new Digital Campaigns Manager
1. HQ Staff Responsibilities
We thought it might be helpful to explain our HQ colleagues’ roles as follows, to assist you in directing your enquiries to the most appropriate person. If there are any issues arising that cannot be satisfactorily addressed by these colleagues, please contact the General Secretary.
David Luxton, Deputy General Secretary
Recruitment & Organisation, Group Closure Arrangements, Membership Benefits, Governance (including Public Liability, Insurances, GDPR, Premises Lease, etc), AGM Contractual Arrangements.
Mike Sparham, National Treasurer (Part Time)
Banking and Accounts, Payroll, Expenses Claims, CSPA Investments, Auditors, Budgetary Forecasts/Reports to the EC, Incoming/Outgoing Payments to Branches, Closure of Group Bank Accounts, Payment of Invoices from Suppliers and Advisors, Statutory payments, Raising CSPA invoices, Financial Policy.
Christine Haswell, Pensions & Personal Case Manager (Part Time)
Collective and Individual Representation, Support and Advice in connection with Civil Service Pensions and Related Matters. Christine also assists us with Submissions to Consultations and writes Advisory Papers on topics relevant to Members. Christine is the General Secretary of the PSPC.
Christine Buckley, Editor – The Pensioner (Part Time)
Compiles, Edits and Formats the Magazine, working with our Publishers and Printers, Procures Articles and Other Content, Receives/Collates Reports and Updates from EC Members, Regional Reps and Groups, Correspondence with Readership and Advertisers.
Marion McAuliffe, Office Manager
CSPA Banking, Membership Subscriptions (Pension Deductions/Direct Debits), Group Newsletter Printing and Distribution, AGM Organisation, Office Management
Benedetta Makanju, PA to General Secretary/Deputy Office Manager
Incoming Post, Calls and Emails (enquiries@cspa.co.uk and via website), Member Updates on the Database, Distribution of EC and Group Circulars, Assists with EC and Committee Meeting Arrangements, AGM Arrangements, New Online Membership Applications, Office & GS Diaries, etc.
Sandra Roberts, Membership Records Secretary (Part Time)
New Member Welcome Packs, New Online/Paper Membership Applications, Joiners and Leavers Reports (Groups), Group Postholder and Member Details Updates on Database, Telephone Enquiries, etc.
Robyn Hampson, CRM Database Officer (Part Time)
Ongoing CRM Database Development, Data Cleansing, CRM Support for HQ Team & Branch Membership Secretaries, Assists with the Provision of Group and Regional Member Lists, Group Newsletter and Magazine Mailing Lists, and the E-Newsletter Distribution.
TBC, Digital Campaigns Manager (Part Time)
Maintenance and Development of the CSPA Website, Support for Branch Websites, Website Content, Social Media Postings, E-Newsletters, Online Recruitment Initiatives, Webinar Hosting, Digital Campaigning, Analysis and Reporting on Digital Engagement, Media Relations (Partner Organisations/Press). See also item 9.
Rosemary Cooney, Temporary Admin Assistant (Part Time)
Rose has helped us with cover duties over the Summer months and is now assisting us with the ongoing Data Cleansing project.
2. Parliamentary event to launch the LLA Pensioners’ Manifesto
As Later Life Ambitions, with our partners NARPO and the NFOP, who represent retired police officers and retired Royal Mail and BT staff, we will soon be launching the LLA manifesto: “Standing by Pensioners” which encapsulates our main campaigns and demands of decision-makers on our members’ behalf. These include the call for a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing for England and for Scotland. With the help of our parliamentary relations team at Connect, we will be co-hosting an event at the House of Commons on the 21st November 2023 to promote the manifesto and our campaigns to MPs and others. Connect is writing letters of invitation to all MPs and selected Age Sector organisations on our behalf.
Due to the limitations of the room size, we will sadly have to restrict the CSPA’s attendance at the event itself to between 5 and 10 people, but we will be writing to all CSPA Groups and Branches in due course to encourage them to contact their MPs, asking them to come to the event to find out more about the CSPA, Later Life Ambitions and our campaigns.
A toolkit containing links to template letters, emails and other resources, along with copies of the manifesto itself, will be circulated to Groups and Branches, and made available on our website, very soon.
3. McCloud Remedy update – Summer 2023
Following the outcome of the recent consultation, from October 1st, letters will go out to thousands of civil servants, including those retired and deferred, who are affected by the 2015 Remedy – this is more commonly known as McCloud (the name of the judge that determined the original age discrimination case).
This process will take up to 18 months, so it might take a while for letters to get to the individuals affected, but it’s well worth being prepared. There is a new timeline which gives an idea of what these members should expect and when:
The letters will set out members’ individual benefits built up whilst working in the Civil Service between April 2015 to March 2022. They will show these benefits in both the legacy or old scheme, usually referred to as the “Classic”,
and in the new Alpha scheme, so members can then opt for the best option for them. A decision will need to be made within 12 months.
CSPA ran two successful webinars on the 2015 Remedy in the Spring, and we are in the process of planning two more webinars to bring everyone up to date and help them in making their decisions.
The webinars will be held on the 22nd and 29th of November 2023, both commencing at 2pm. Look out for registration details, which will be coming soon.
4. Group Newsletters – guidance on content and formatting
Each Group is entitled to send out up to four Newsletters each year, printed and dispatched from Head Office. Group Newsletters are now printed and dispatched by an external company, Quadient, which has resulted in substantial savings on paper, envelopes, postage and staff time at Head Office. The mail merge using members names and addresses continues to be done from Head Office, so our members’ personal data does not have to be shared with Quadient. The changed arrangements mean that we now need to have a more standardised format for Group Newsletters when they are sent in by Groups to ensure that their printing and dispatch runs smoothly.
We now need Newsletters to be submitted in `Word` format, with all pages together, not as a front cover plus 2-4 pages on separate sheets as in the past. We do not have a generic Template because every Group has a different style of Newsletter. However, what we do need is a generous amount of space at the top of the document for the Name, Address and Postcode to be imported into. This allows the document to have a clear area for the Name and Address plus a barcode which is impressed by the new software and sent off to Quadient to process.
We do ask that you give us at least 10 days’ notice for Newsletters to be processed. CSPA HQ Staff are very busy and often receive many Group Newsletters all at the same time, which has unfortunately caused some delays, so the Newsletters need to be scheduled. Newsletters are also now put onto the National Website on the relevant Regional page as soon as they are posted.
Note that we may experience programme glitches and formatting problems
when there are text boxes, columns, photographs, etc within the document.
We, therefore, need to receive Group Newsletter by email, addressed to Marion McAuliffe marion.mcauliffe@cspa.co.uk and in the following format:
- Word document format,
- up to 4 pages with adequate space on the first page to insert text box for name and address,
- margins cannot go to the very edge of the paper – they need to come in at least an inch on the left-hand side.
Marion will then reformat the Newsletters to be impressed onto the new software in the required style so that everything fits onto the pages and the address is freely impressed into the new software. This is then sent to Quadient, who process and post them, directly from their printers. We hope this is of assistance to you and your Newsletter editor.
Any questions about Group Newsletters please contact Marion by email on marion.mcauliffe@cspa.co.uk or telephone: 020 8688 8418.
Relevant news items for Group newsletters can be taken direct from our Website News page www.cspa.co.uk which is now regularly updated. We would ask Groups to make the most of the Group Newsletter contact with their members to include local and national issues of interest, and specifically not to circulate minutes of local meetings or short notifications of meetings without any other content, so as to make full use of these mail-outs to members.
5. The Pensioner – Group, Regional and Branch submissions deadlines
The Pensioner is a key part of the way CSPA engages with its members and vice versa. The Editor, Christine Buckley, (editor@cspa.co.uk) is keen to hear from members and activists, and to look at ways to involve more members in our activities. We have branch and group news, main news and letters pages which are great forums for dialogue and information. But we also want to hear your ideas about what you might want to see in the magazine, and we welcome any contributions you may want to make. The magazine needs quite a bit of notice because it is quarterly, and the Editor works part-time, so please think ahead.
From next year we’re expanding branch news to include a calendar of forward meeting dates from any group, branch or region, alongside the fuller branch reports which alternate each issue between letters of the alphabet for the branch/group names.
For the magazine’s production to work smoothly next year we would like meeting dates and ideas, as well as branch copy from groups starting with the designated letters, to be submitted by the following deadlines.
| Magazine Issue | Submission Deadline | Group Reports From |
| Spring Edition | January 8th 2024 | Groups starting with B,D,F etc |
| Summer Edition | April 15th 2024 | Groups starting with A,C,E etc |
| Autumn Edition | June 24th 2024 | Groups starting with B,D,F etc |
| Winter Edition | September 30th 2024 | Groups starting with A,C,E etc |
We hope Groups and Branches will find this helpful in their forward planning of their events and member communications.
6. Update on our meeting with the Cabinet Office on 4 September 2023
We were pleased to have the opportunity to meet with eight of our colleagues in the Cabinet Office virtually on 4th September. It was both informative and constructive, with the agenda covering a wide array of matters of interest to our membership. A short summary of topics covered at the meeting follows.
Future Service Provision and Timetable
The contract for civil service pension scheme administration has been out to tender and they are now at the shortlisting stage. We should know within the next couple of months who their preferred bidder is, and we will be be updated about their progress on the award of contract and plans for the transition period.
Current Service Levels
This is a regular item, as members tend to tell us about any delays they may be experiencing. The Cabinet Office reported a 99.9% meeting of service
targets in processing partial retirement claims and a very quick turnaround in dependents’ pensions applications.
Home Office uniform allowance
Some members who previously worked in the Home Office are having issues around pensionable allowances, this is ongoing work.
Pension Overpayment Cases
We had a discussion around how members are notified of overpayments and provided with information about the options available to them.
Remedy 2015 (McCloud)
We were informed of the consultation outcome and received an update on the implementation.
Walker/Goodwin
This issue around pre-1987 survivor benefits is ongoing. We will be formally consulted about retirees in due course – probably next year.
Pensions for Life
The numbers of suspended pensions due to remarriage has dropped recently. This does not include those still receiving GMP.
Pensions Portal
Uptake by pensioners still pretty good, and facilities for deferred members’ access and a ‘track my case’ functionality will be coming soon.
Regional Employer Forums
These are due in the Autumn and are being covered by CSPA staff. The CSPA promotional video has been shown at Pension Awareness week online events.
New Civil Service Pension Board Chair
The CO team has agreed to set up a meeting with the CSPA General Secretary and the new Chair soon.
Pension News Digital newsletter
This has been well received generally, with paper copies being sent out to members on request.
Statistics
We discussed the calculations of pensions in payments – the upcoming Valuation should give us more detailed information.
We are scheduled to meet again in the last week of November.
7. Advice for Groups considering closure
Unfortunately, several local Groups have closed over the past year due to volunteers no longer able to keep the Groups running without new volunteers coming forward. The EC has reviewed the process to be followed when a Group decides to close or is likely to close imminently. In the first instance, the Deputy General Secretary (DGS): david.luxton@cspa.co.uk and the National Treasurer, Mike Sparham: m.sparham@cspa.co.uk should be notified, so that appropriate steps can be taken to update our membership system; maintain contact with the members affected; liaise with the Group Treasurer; and explore potential options with the remaining volunteers.
For advice and information please ring the DGS, David Luxton, at CSPA Head Office on 0208 688 8418.
8. Working Party on future CSPA AGM arrangements
In response to Remitted Motion A17/22 from the 2022 AGM about future AGM arrangements, the Executive Council has agreed to establish a small working party to review options for the format of AGM arrangements from 2025 onwards. We would very much like to include a few local Group representatives on the working party, plus representation from the Scotland and Northern Ireland Branches. The working party will start work after this year`s AGM and make recommendations for consideration at the 2024 AGM. If your Group wishes to nominate a representative for the Working Party, please email the Deputy General Secretary: david.luxton@cspa.co.uk
We will also survey delegates at this year`s AGM for their views on the format of future AGM`s from 2025 onwards. A short survey form will be included in the welcome packs at registration, with the results being presented to the Working Party when it first meets.
9. We are looking to recruit a new Digital Campaigns Manager
Groups may be aware that shortly after Lisa Ray’s departure, our Policy, Projects & Campaigns Manager, Nicola Crichton, also left the CSPA to pursue new opportunities elsewhere.
We are currently recruiting for a part-time replacement for her, to a redefined post entitled ‘Digital Campaigns Manager’ following a review of HQ roles and functions.
Further information about this opportunity is available on our website here – Job vacancy for CSPA Digital Campaigns Manager – CSPA
If you have any questions or require any further information about the matters covered by this Group Circular, please don’t hesitate to contact me, either by email at sally.tsoukaris@cspa.co.uk or by telephone on 020 8688 8418 (Office)/07827 291 073 (Mobile).
Yours sincerely
Sally Tsoukaris
General Secretary
Civil Service Pensioners’ Alliance
Tel: 020 8688 8418
