Thousands of people facing West Midlands Pension Fund payment delay

Boyd Howells said the delays were "scandalous"

Pension payments for approximately 2,000 people have been delayed amid a fund's IT problems.

One retired police officer said he had not received a payment from the West Midlands Pension Fund in six months.

The Wolverhampton-based organisation has apologised, blaming a new administration system installed in July.

Executive director Rachel Brothwood said staff had not anticipated such disruption.

She added the new system was designed to increase automation and enhance security.

It is unclear how many among those affected have experienced the six-month delay cited by retired police officer Boyd Howells, 69. But some fund members whose retirements begin imminently have been warned to expect difficulties.

A former employee of the fund, who did not want to be identified, suggested the reason problems persisted was that the new IT system was "not fit for purpose".

Mr Howells, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, described the situation as "scandalous".

He retired from a civilian role with West Midlands Police in May. Before that, he worked as a police officer, meaning he has a police pension in addition to income West Midlands Pension Fund is supposed to provide.

But as payments from the latter fail to emerge, he said he was worried about those who depended on them.

"People who probably were on a low wage, probably don't have other pensions, who put store on getting their pension on time to pay off debts, mortgages, holidays, or buy Christmas presents... What are they going to be able to do?"

West Midlands Pension Fund head office. It is estimated 2,000 people's pensions have been delayed following IT problems

The West Midlands Pension Fund is part of the Local Government Pension Scheme and works in partnership with the seven West Midlands Metropolitan District Councils: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

The organisation manages the pensions of 350,000 people in the West Midlands and processes on average 8,000 new retirees' pensions a year.

Members include the employees and retirees of more than 800 public sector organisations, including local authorities and emergency services.

Gerry Wintrip is due to retire at the end of December and has been told to expect a delay

Gerry Wintrip, 64, from Walsall, is a former police officer who is due to retire from his trading standards job at the end of December. He has been warned to expect a delay in pension payments.

He said he would have delayed his retirement if he had known about the scale of the problem.

"If they'd have said right at the very start that there is an issue and I may not get my pension payment for a while after I retire, I wouldn't have retired, I'd have waited until it was all sorted out."

The anonymous former fund employee told the BBC: "From what I witnessed, the new software seemed to be chosen without thorough scrutiny of its suitability.

"This system is usually used by smaller pension funds, not one of this size."

The fund's executive director Rachel Brothwood said she was sincerely sorry for the situation

The West Midlands Pension Fund has apologised to its members for the disruption and said it was working hard to resolve the issues.

It said it was investing staff resources into finding and prioritising the most vulnerable people, and hoped to make payments to those individuals within three weeks.

"In undertaking this change we did not anticipate this level of disruption and we are sincerely sorry to all of our members who have been affected by this," said Ms Brothwood, who added people were not being ignored.

The company was increasing its phone lines capacity and had been investing in staff resourcing and training, she said.