Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PO-3983)

Subject

• Dr Blackshaw has complained that she and her husband were misled as to her entitlement to a widow’s pension under the Scheme. She says that she has suffered significant financial loss in her pension provision as a result of decisions taken in reliance of the incorrect information they were given.

The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman’s determination and short reasons

The complaint should be partially upheld against the Cabinet Office because:

• Misleading information on the level of widow’s pension was provided on two separate occasions (1989 and 2011).
• The second occasion was shortly after the death of Dr Blackshaw’s husband and would have caused her considerable distress when the error was corrected and notified to her.
• However, I have found that it was not reasonable for Mr and Dr Blackshaw to base their employment and pension decisions upon the 1989 letter given the degree of ambiguity it contained, its proviso that the figures were subject to Section 4 of the Scheme Rules and in the light of the other correspondence which correctly set out the entitlement under the Scheme Rules. Indeed, in all the circumstances, I am not persuaded that the letter was a significant contributing factor to the decisions they took at that time.