By Vivienne Russell | 15 June 2012
MyCSP Ltd, the part-mutual set up to administer the civil service pension scheme, has won 15 contracts from other public bodies, it announced today.
They include the Food Standards Agency, the Electoral Commission the House of Lords and the pension schemes from some now defunct quangos such as the regional development agencies.
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said the contract wins were a ‘real vote of confidence for what a mutual, at the cutting edge of public sector reform, can achieve’. He said MyCSP would halve pension administration costs and provide an improved service.
Phil Bartlett, MyCSP chief executive, added: ‘The flexibility we have as a mutual joint venture allows us to flourish in this way as a business, while delivering tangible returns for the employees who work for us. Our employees have a significant stake in everything we do and I am delighted that they stand to benefit from our recent successes.’
Under MyCSP’s model, employees have a 25% ownership stake, representation at board level and a share in profits. A private sector partner, the Equiniti Group’s Xafinity Paymaster, has a 40% stake and the government 35%.
On May 1, the company was awarded the contract to administer the Principal Civil Service Pension scheme for seven years. It has 500 employee partners working in six offices throughout England who will receive an annual dividend from profits.
But the PCS civil service union claims that MyCSP has been imposed on staff by ministers and senior managers. In a survey last year, responded to by more than half of MyCSP staff, 94% of respondents said they did not agree that turning it into a mutual would 'empower employees', and more than 95% said they wanted to retain their civil service status.
A recent poll of civil servants, conducted by the Civil Service World newspaper, found that more than two-thirds (69%) had no interest in exploring the idea of mutualisation. Just 16% indicated that they were receptive to the idea, while 15% said they didn’t know.
Reasons given for lack of enthusiasm for mutual status included a desire to preserve public sector culture, ethos and attitudes, concern at the loss of public sector pensions and terms and conditions and worry that the enterprise might be taken over by a powerful private sector partner.
Commenting on the findings, which were published yesterday, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘This blows a hole right through the government's claims that this is in any way employee-led, and shows civil servants are deeply sceptical about what is simply privatisation by another name.’
But a Cabinet Office spokeswoman said the survey results were encouraging. 'As pioneering front-line staff lead the way for others, more civil servants will see the benefits of mutuals first-hand,' she said.
The 15 new pension administration contracts awarded to MyCSP Ltd are:
House of Lords
Competition Commission
Electoral Commission
Commission for Equality & Human Rights
Food Standards Agency
Army Sports & Control Board
Law Commissioners
Residential Property Tribunal
East Midlands regional development agency
East England development agency
North West development agency
South West development agency
Yorkshire Forward development agency
Advantage West Midlands development agency
One North East regional development agency
