Former civil servants say they are using their own savings to survive due to the “appalling incompetence” which has stopped them getting their pension.

A group of 8,500 ex-Government workers have spent months without regular payments from the private company in charge of the public sector pensions scheme.

Capita apologised for the “worry, distress and frustration” – insisting that it is making progress with a backlog it inherited when it took over the scheme in December.

However, a pensions campaign group said it was still hearing from newly-retired civil servants suffering from stress and problems paying bills due to ongoing delays.

‘When is the money going to come in?’

Marc Roffey, a 60-year-old from Wiltshire, has been without regular pension payments for almost five months.

Roffey worked for the Civil Service for around 30 years, finishing his time working on contracts and procurement at the Home Office.

He expected to start receiving his pension payment of around £2,000 a month at the start of December 2025 after retiring, but has still not received his monthly pension payments.

“It’s been incredibly stressful. The uncertainty is hard to live with – when is the money going to come in? Next week? A few months from now? Six months? You just can’t plan your retirement,” he told The i Paper.

Roffey doesn’t have any other income, but he said has been able to “eke out” his savings to get by over the past five months.

He did finally receive his initial lump sum payment in March, which will help in the short-term but is still yet to receive his full allowance.

“I’m not on the poverty line, but living in limbo is difficult,” he said. “I thought I would get a new car – can’t do that. I thought I might be able to take the family on holiday – can’t do that either.”

“There are people who are struggling to get by. I feel so sorry for everyone caught up in this – so many people have been treated so badly.”

Processing of payments has ‘improved’, says Capita

Major problems emerged after private contractor Capita Public Service took over the pension scheme from MyCSP in early December.

Capita said it inherited a much larger backlog of unresolved pension cases than it had expected – saying it stood at 89,000 when it took over.

A group of around 8,500 former civil servants were identified in January as suffering from failures in getting both their lump sum and regular pension payments.

Capita had targeted the end of April to resolve the most urgent cases, and the end of June for normal service to resume.

Richard Holroyd, chief executive of Capita Public Service, told MPs on the Public Accounts Committee at the end of March that processing of delayed payments had “improved” but were “still not what members deserve”.

Asked about the group of 8,500 people waiting for regular payments, Capita executives told MPs that it had paid out 7,782 lump sums. But they did not say how many of them had also started receiving their regular, monthly payment.

Anger, frustration and despair over delays

Roffey remains frustrated by the lack of clear information from Capita, and has no faith the problem will be resolved soon.

“When I first called about this problem in December, I was number 1,138 in the queue,” said the ex-Home Office worker. “It was staggering.”

“When I got into an online portal – it only shows my most basic information. No information about the pension or the delay,” Roffey added.

“You go through anger, you go through frustration, you go into despair. It’s just appalling to leave people without their payments for so long. A travesty. It’s incredibly incompetent.”

Doug Eckford, from Romford in Essex, said he has not begun to receive his monthly pension payment since retiring from his role at the Home Office in November.

The 60-year-old received a lump sum in February – but he is still waiting for his regular payments. Eckford has had to borrow money from family to pay his bills.

“I have still to receive official communication as to what my monthly pension will be,” he said. “The whole process has been a complete train wreck.”

Widows and widowers have waited months for payments

The Civil Service Pensioners’ Alliance (CSPA) has heard from members who have retired in recent months who still have not received payments.

Some current Government workers have put off retirement because of the pension problem, according to the campaign group.

The group has also been in touch with widows and widowers who have waited several months for payments of their spouse’s pension.

Jonathan Safir, the CSPA deputy general secretary, said there was “little confidence” that Capita would resolve all urgent cases soon.

He said members were still “experiencing financial difficulty and significant stress as a result of ongoing delays, with understandable consequences for their health and wellbeing”.

Catherine Little, the Civil Service’s chief operating officer, announced in January that hardship loans would be available to those suffering from delays. So far, 769 loans have been issued with a total value of £4m.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said Capita’s service had been “unacceptable”. The Government will continue to “hold Capita to account and ensure they deliver for both members and taxpayers”, they added.

A Capita spokesperson said it was making “sustained progress” in addressing the backlog it inherited from the previous provider.

“Additional staff have been trained and deployed, and we are working to restore full normal service as quickly as possible. We are sorry for the worry, distress and frustration this has caused.”

Amazon is reportedly toying with the idea of making Donald Trump Jr the host of a reboot of The Apprentice, the TV show that paved the way for his father’s political run.

There was speculation that Junior, the wildest, most Maga-fied Trump, was being primed to succeed Dad as president. He said last year “that [the] calling was there” in politics, and he has a solid fanbase in the gun-toting, big-mouth wing of the Republican party. Who better to carry the Donald Trump brand forward than the eldest son who bears his name? That’s the theory, but the President seems doubtful Junior, now a fully adult 48-year-old, has the chops to run a reality TV show, let alone the White House.

“He’s a good guy. He’d be probably good. He’s got a little charisma going. You need a little charisma for that sucker. So, we’ll see what happens,” Trump Sr told reporters in the Oval office.

The President is obsessed with building a dynasty and believes in the power of “great genes”. But like Logan Roy, the patriarch in the television drama Succession, Trump loves playing his children off against each other. He thinks it instills a healthy killer instinct in his privileged offspring.

If he could hand-pick his political and showbiz heir, it would be Ivanka. According to the book Apprentice in Wonderland (2024), when Trump left the show to run for president, he wanted his daughter to take it over. “I didn’t press it,” he reportedly said. “But I felt Ivanka would have been by the far the best person you could hire.”

Ivanka, 44, is his only child to have served in the White House. She was Trump’s senior adviser in his first term, promoting women’s empowerment (how quaint that now seems in a world of masculine energy) and played the diplomat and quasi-First Lady at summits with foreign leaders.

By nature a charmer rather than a divider, and shaken by the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, Ivanka stayed out of the 2024 election. “I do not plan to be involved in politics,” she said when her father announced he was running again. Note her carefully calibrated use of the word “plan”.

Trump has done all he can to smooth her path with the experience and money needed to become America’s first woman president. Her husband Jared Kushner, also a former White House adviser, made a cool $2bn with Saudi investors on leaving office. He returned this year as a special “peace envoy” and leading Iran negotiator while continuing to do business in the Middle East.

I don’t doubt Jared would be delighted to serve as First Gentleman and consigliere to President Ivanka Trump, but they are both too smart to set their sights on the near future. With Trump at a low ebb – 55 per cent of Americans say they feel worse off, the worst number for 25 years, according to Gallup – 2028 may be a “change” election.

If Ivanka runs, it is likely to be when hostility to Trump has faded and nostalgia sets in. But her brothers have spotted a potential vacancy. Eric Trump, 42, the second son, told the Financial Times last year, “I think I could do it. And, by the way, I think other members of our family could do it too.”

And as the Bush family found out when George W beat favored son Jeb to the White House after their dad, timing is everything. Don Jr and Eric could vie with each other to go first. Don Jr has the biggest megaphone – he has a podcast and YouTube presence, has written a bestselling memoir, Triggered, and has said: “I’m used to getting up on a stage with a mic and talking to ten, fifteen thousand people.”

Both have become richer while their dad is in the White House. Eric, who manages the Trump Organization, briefly became a billionaire last year, according to Forbes, after expanding his wealth ten-fold since his father’s re-election.

Crypto investments have powered Don Jr and Eric’s exponential growth in wealth. Don Jr was reportedly worth an estimated $300m by the end of last year (his wealth grew six-fold). This week, the Financial Times reported that Don Jr and Eric have taken a stake in a Kazakh mining company, which secured up to $1.6bn in US government support last year.

Who will win the game of thrones? Eric’s wife Lara Trump is a highly political Fox News host. Don Jr has just postponed his planned wedding to Bettina Anderson (apparently it would be inappropriately lavish during the Iran war, according to a report in the Daily Mail). Ivanka is hors de combat, for now.

As with Logan Roy, Trump wants the final say and is not inclined to give up power anytime soon. He wants his boys to succeed, but not to elbow him out of the way. As Roy said in the most devastating line from Succession: “I love you, but you are not serious people.”

fonte

David Allan Coe, uma figura polêmica que ajudou a criar o subgênero musical “outlaw nation” do século 20, escrevendo sucessos como “Take This Job and Shove It” e “Would you Lay With Me (In a Discipline of Stone)”, morreu.

Coe morreu na noite de quarta-feira, confirmou seu representante David Wade ao The Instances. Ele tinha 86 anos. Nenhum outro detalhe estava disponível.

As origens da música nation fora da lei, fashionable nas décadas de 1970 e 1980, são amplamente creditadas a Waylon Jennings e Willie Nelson, mas Coe foi uma figura seminal no subgênero. Ele começou a escrever e lançar músicas na década de 1970 e estava cercado por alguma mística. Seu álbum de estreia, “Penitentiary Blues”, lançado em 1969, foi compilado com faixas escritas enquanto Coe estava na prisão.

O músico nascido em Ohio ingressou em um reformatório em Michigan aos 9 anos de idade e passou as duas décadas seguintes entrando e saindo de instalações correcionais. Seus crimes incluíam roubo e roubo de automóveis. Mais recentemente, confessou-se culpado em 2015 por não ter pago imposto sobre o rendimento durante vários anos e, no ano seguinte, foi condenado a pagar ao IRS quase US $ 1 milhão e foi condenado a três anos de liberdade condicional.

A formação de Coe period adequada para encontrar um lar no movimento dos países fora da lei. Ele afirmou ter sido inspirado pela lenda do blues Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, que ele disse que era um companheiro de prisão em um ponto.

Após sua libertação da Penitenciária Estadual de Ohio em 1967, Coe foi para Nashville e tentou entrar no cenário da música nation. Ele period disse ter vivido em seu carro, às vezes acampando fora do Ryman Auditorium da cidade – antiga casa do Grande Ole Opry – na esperança de ser notado.

Só dois anos depois é que Coe conseguiu um contrato de gravação com a SSS Worldwide e Plantation Information de Shelby Singleton e lançou “Penitentiary Blues”. O álbum não vendeu bem, mas foi recebido com carinho pela crítica e fãs.

Ele então pegou a estrada, abrindo reveals para artistas como Grand Funk Railroad e se apresentando em clubes de todo o país. Seu segundo álbum, “Requiem for a Harlequin”, refletiu a recepção do primeiro.

Ele finalmente conseguiu tocar no rádio com seu single de 1973, “Hold They Large Wheels Hummin’”. Embora Coe não tenha conseguido agitar a música nation naquela época, ele ainda lançaria singles pela gravadora de Singleton, com sede em Nashville, Plantation Information. Ele finalmente se separou do produtor.

Mesmo assim, Coe se destacou como compositor. Notavelmente, Tanya Tucker obteve um grande sucesso com seu “Would You Lay with Me (In a Discipline of Stone)”, que atingiu o pico em 46º lugar na Billboard Scorching 100 dos EUA – passou 10 semanas nas paradas – e alcançou o primeiro lugar no Scorching Nation Songs dos EUA.

Coe começou a reinventar sua personalidade no palco, vestindo ternos cravejados de strass e uma máscara de pano. Ele assinou com a Columbia Information e se autodenominou “The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy”, lançando um álbum de mesmo nome em 1974 – um ano antes de Glen Campbell lançar seu hit “Rhinestone Cowboy”.

O segundo LP de Coe pela Columbia, “As soon as Upon a Rhyme”, lançado em 1975, foi um sucesso, apresentando o single “You By no means Even Known as Me by My Title”.

Nesse mesmo ano, um documentário intitulado “David Allan Coe: The Mysterious Rhinestone” foi lançado com participação do cantor atuando “33 de agosto” de uma cela de prisão na Instituição Correcional Marion, em Ohio.

O documentário destaca uma afirmação que Coe fez durante sua vida e que foi amplamente contestada – que ele havia matado outro preso na Penitenciária Estadual de Ohio – e diz que as autoridades penitenciárias disseram que não havia evidências para apoiá-la.

Coe period conhecido por inventar histórias sobre sua vida, com o baterista de Jennings, Richie Albright, uma vez afirmando que ele period “um grande compositor”, mas “ele não poderia dizer a verdade se fosse melhor do que uma mentira que ele inventou”.

Independentemente disso, Coe rapidamente abandonou o ato de “Rhinestone Cowboy” e voltou ao básico. Em 1976, ele gravou seu nome na história da música nation quando apareceu com destaque no documentário “Heartworn Highways”.

O filme foi lançado em 1976 e se tornou um clássico cult. Foi dirigido por James Szalapski e não seria lançado nos cinemas até 1981. O documentário narrou o auge do país fora da lei, que viu Coe em boa companhia – Townes Van Zandt, Man Clark, Steve Earle e a Charlie Daniels Band também são apresentados.

Numa entrevista em áudio de 1996 com Thomas W. Campbell, membro do Nationwide Board of Evaluate, Szalapski disse sobre o projeto: “Eu queria capturar uma espécie de movimento, uma espécie de revolução – fazer um retrato disso em vez de três caras.

“Senti que havia uma mudança acontecendo na música nation, uma subcultura dentro dela que estava se tornando poderosa e que afetaria a cultura principal. Então foi isso que procurei e é por isso que senti que precisava cobrir muitas áreas diferentes, desde a estrela estabelecida como Charlie Daniels até o cantor e compositor em dificuldades e David Allan Coe, que é… até mesmo um fora-da-lei entre os fora-da-lei.”

Coe’s desempenho na Prisão Estadual do Tennessee em 1976 é capturado no filme, servindo como destaque. Ele canta músicas como a já detalhada “Loss of life Row”, fazendo breves intervalos para contar histórias de suas experiências enquanto estava encarcerado.

“Mostre a todos como alguém como você chega onde estou hoje, sendo alguém como eu, porque eu costumava ser alguém como você”, diz ele, parado na frente dos presidiários em um terno de strass. “E tudo começou quando eu tinha 15 anos, na Boys’ Industrial College em Ohio, e comecei a cantar apenas com meu violão e cinco dos meus amigos.”

O resto da década de 70 viu o movimento dos países fora da lei em pleno andamento, com Jennings e Nelson ascendendo a nomes conhecidos. Coe permaneceu um estranho, mas lançou discos que seriam influentes, como “Longhaired Redneck”. O álbum de compilação se tornou o primeiro disco nation com certificado de platina, Rolling Stone relatórios. Em 1977, Coe escreveu “Take This Job and Shove It”, que se tornou um sucesso para Johnny Paycheck.

Os anos 80 trouxeram quase o fim do país fora da lei quando a period do cowboy urbano tomou o seu lugar amplamente atribuída ao filme de John Travolta de mesmo nome

Coe rejeitou a tendência, mantendo seu estilo clássico de fora da lei.

“Castles within the Sand”, lançado em 1983, marcou o retorno de Coe, com seu primeiro single, “The Journey”, alcançando o primeiro lugar na parada Cashbox Nation Singles daquele ano.

Coe apareceu ao lado de Johnny Money e Kris Kristofferson em dois filmes de TV em 1986, “Os Últimos Dias de Frank e Jesse James” e “Stagecoach”.

Por volta de 1990, o contrato de Coe com a Columbia terminou e em meio a problemas pessoais, incluindo um divórcio e problemas com o IRS, sua casa em Key West, Flórida, foi confiscada. Coe disse que viveu em uma caverna por algum tempo – outra de suas afirmações que foi contestada.

Coe gerou polêmica com os álbuns independentes “Nothing Sacred” e “Underground Album”, lançados em 1978 e 1982, respectivamente.

O primeiro inclui uma música dirigida a Anita Bryant, conhecida por sua oposição aos direitos dos homossexuais. A música de Coe critica o artista ao mesmo tempo que reforça estereótipos homofóbicos e calúnias.

“Underground Album” contém uma música escrita a partir da perspectiva de um indivíduo cuja esposa o abandona por um homem negro. Está repleto de calúnias, começando pelo título, e, assim como sua música sobre Anita Bryant, reforça vários estereótipos prejudiciais, desta vez sobre os negros.

Como resultado, Coe foi chamado de racista. Ele respondeu“Qualquer um que ouça este álbum e diga que sou racista está cheio de merda.”

Ao longo do resto de sua vida, Coe continuou a fazer música, mas voltou-se para as apresentações ao vivo como sua principal fonte de renda. Em seu círculo pessoal, manteve uma amizade de longa information com Nelson e eventualmente colaborou com Child Rock.

A redatora do Instances, Clara Harter, contribuiu para este relatório.