“It is virtually impossible that there are any other retired teachers with my name and birth date who are dying year on year.”
Teachers’ Pensions has stopped Eileen McGrath’s payments four times since 2020 because its Capita-run system matched her to a dead stranger and never records that she proved otherwise. So the 85-year-old has to prove she is alive every 12 months. The letters leave out the 28-day deadline “to avoid causing upset,” which is how she went without income over Christmas. Capita collects the contract fee and the pensioner does the verification for free.