New Capita-run Civil Service Pension Scheme - problems (what a surprise!)

alri08

I suspect the information was put on the website as a consequence of the BBC running a story about the chaos, which was then picked up by other outlets.

Chappo99

johnnyfreedosh said:

I believe the front line Capita employees manning the phones know very little other than details you already know i.e NI number DOB Address and perhaps minor things like previous call notes.

   Example being I spoke will a call agent the day before I got my lump sum and during call she had no idea it was going to be paid the next day.   All she could tell me was it was with the "finilisation team" and she didn't know anything else other than that.

You have no chance of speaking with anyone else other than a frontline call agent which makes it even more frustrating (I'm not blaming them it's the system)

Again for anyone trying to guage timelines my position:

Retired on 1st Dec
Lump sum received 9th Jan
Still awaiting first pension payment.
No letters -emails - lump sum certificate or in fact any correspondence from MyCSP or Capita received.

I can only be thankful I got my lump sum which will see me through the storm.   

I feel so sorry for those who have already retired and are still waiting on payment and those due to retire in coming months as it's not likely to be resolved any time soon.

Yes I too retired 1 Dec and as yet have had nothing.
Just keep being told it’s with the Finalisation team. No replies to emails.
Kept being cut off after 2 hours on mobile phone so used the landline 3 hours and 20 minutes for a five minute conversation. Two days later found out that cost me £51
Have reported it to my local MP but so far he has heard nothing from the letter he has sent to Capita. 
Not a happy chappy  at the moment .

MouldyOldDough

There is a facebook group who will provide answers and support 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/8724724710959215/

horsewithnoname

Elvie100 said:

I have just come across this:

https://www.capita.com/news-and-insights/news/2026/civil-service-pensions-scheme-service-delivery-update

We know many members are experiencing challenges with the Civil Service Pensions Scheme at this time. We are sorry for any delays and frustration this has caused, and we want to be clear on what is happening and what we’re doing to put things right.

What has happened

Capita took over the administration of the Civil Service Pensions Scheme (CSPS) on 1 December 2025. As part of the transition, we inherited a significant volume of outstanding work from the previous provider, including a backlog of 86,000 work in progress cases. As a result of this there have been serious issues affecting members’ ability to access some services, including delays to pension quotes and payments for newly retired members, long waits on customer service calls, and difficulties accessing the portal. 

We are doing everything we can to reduce this backlog and resume normal service levels, and are working closely with the Cabinet Office and HMRC, to resolve these issues as a matter of urgency.

What we are doing 

We have taken immediate steps to strengthen the service:

• Dedicated teams are in place to work specifically on inherited cases to reduce waiting times as quickly as possible.
• We are prioritising cases where there are bereavements, members going into retirement and hardship situations.
• Increasing capacity – Capita has over 500 full-time equivalent colleagues working on CSPS. Across January and February, we are increasing resources to handle more cases and deliver better response times at the contact centre. 
• Introducing new tools and features – Over the coming months, members will gain access to services such as Track My Case and Retire Online, providing greater clarity and control over their case and retirement options. 2025 Annual Benefits Statements will be available on the portal shortly.

 

We expect to restore service levels for the most urgent cases by the end of February, before full recovery of the remaining priority cases.

As we work through longstanding cases, members are likely to experience slower response times. 

If your query is less urgent, we encourage you to raise an online enquiry via the pensions portal, allowing us to prioritise urgent cases through the telephone helpline. More details on this are included in the “Frequently Asked Questions” below.

Please be assured that if you are having difficulty accessing the portal or your details appear incomplete, your data is not lost. We are working to resolve these issues and will notify all members as soon as the portal is fully operational

Frequently asked questions

1. When will the backlog be fully resolved?

• We are doing everything we can to reduce this backlog and resume normal service levels.
• We are rolling out new digital features designed to enhance member experience, with full implementation scheduled by the end of March. Throughout February, we’ll also be adding further features that will reduce wait times and give members increased control over their pensions.
• We encourage those with less urgent requests to raise an online enquiry outlining the issue via the pensions portal, allowing urgent cases to be prioritised via the telephone helpline.

 

2. What classifies as an urgent case?

• Death-in-service cases, ill-health retirements and hardship situations.
• Members awaiting their first pension payment, or those expecting a retirement or exit lump sum, as these payments are time critical.
• Bereaved families or representatives, including those notifying us of a member’s death.

 

3. What can I do if I have an urgent issue?

• We encourage members to use the secure mailbox in their pensions portal for case-specific queries as much as possible.
• Where phone support is needed, the helpline remains available. Due to high demand, callers will likely experience a significantly longer than normal wait time.

 

4. What can I do if I have a less urgent issue?

• We encourage members to use the secure mailbox in their pensions portal for case-specific queries as much as possible.
• You can raise a secure message via the portal and include a brief description of the issue.
• One of our specialists will assist you as soon as they can.

 

5. What can I do if I’m having problems with the portal?

• Our programme of enhancements for CSPS members is being rolled out in phases over the coming months. In time, this will streamline the administration process and offer more tailored support structures to members. In the meantime, there will be some functions within the portal that you will not have full access to.
• If you continue to have issues, please submit a query using the ‘Contact Us’ webform on the same site. This will allow us to triage your query without you waiting on the phone.
• If access is blocked, call the helpline, and your case will be created and tracked. You will likely experience a significantly longer than normal wait time.
• One of our specialists will assist you as soon as they can.

 

6. What can I do if I have submitted an online query but haven’t heard back?

• If you have made an enquiry though the portal and you still haven’t heard from us after 10 working days, we sincerely apologise.
• If this is the case and your situation is urgent, or if you are someone that cannot use digital channels, please call our phoneline.
• Additional dedicated lines exist for bereavement and financial hardship which members can find on the portal.

It isn’t “ inconvenient “ to have no money to pay your bills because your pension hasn’t been paid. In spite of the media nonsense of “gold plated” pensions, a large number of civil servants are pence above minimum wage so don’t have savings and don’t have massive pensions. Will it take suicides before they get their act together?
it’s down to the cabinet office, the PAC warned in October that capita were not ready to take over, but they went ahead anyway. Perfectly foreseeable mess which should never have been allowed to happen. 

horsewithnoname

molerat said:

daisy_1571 said:

Hmrc to help out with backlog - as per civil service world a few minutes ago 

Vhttps://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/civil-service-pension-scheme-hmrc-second-perm-sec-angela-macdonald-asked-to-lead-team-to-help-tackle-issues

I would have thought the second permanent secretary would be better employed coming up with a recovery plan for HMRC who seem to be in as much of a mess as Capita !  Sort your own house out before trying to fix another 

Angela McDonald is retiring in a few months, so she may at least be motivated to sort it. 

The issues with HMRC as with all other public services is years of under resourcing.  You can either treat public service like dirt, or you can resource them properly; you can’t have a first class service on the cheap. 

NannaGEO

CAPITA are also ignoring HMRC Tax code changes for existing pensioners. In November HMRC issued emergency tax codes to collect tax on savings interest based on the last tax year. They allowed the previous years tax to be paid in full online, so this would not affect the tax code. However, their estimated tax for this tax year has to be paid over the remainder of this tax year hence the emergency tax code. After contacting HMRC several times to tell them that their estimate is wrong because the amount of taxable interest earned this year is less than last year, which resulted in several revised codes issued, CAPITA have continued to use the emergency tax code which has resulted in an overpayment of tax.

As I wasn't sure if HMRC or CAPITA was the problem and the latter were not replying to secure messages sent via the new members hub I raised this with my MP. Within 3 days I received a call from HMRC and spent 2 hours on the phone with them giving my detailed estimate so they could ensure that our figures matched and a new code issued. They informed me that they are not to blame for this as they are sending the codes to CAPITA and they are unable to force them to use them. I was advised that if CAPITA apply the correct code before the end of the tax year I will get the overpayment refunded in my pension payment. If they don't do this I will have to contact HMRC again at the end of April, armed with payslips, p60 and my breakdown of interest earned. 

When I logged into the members hub today all payslips, P60's and benefit nominations are no longer showing, so when the end of April comes I can't guarantee being able to get what HMRC will need.

My MP has also sent my email to the cabinet office.

Yesterday after seeing a post on the PCS facebook page I sent an email to the CEO of CAPITA about my situation, telling him that I wanted to raise a formal complaint and asking for this to be escalated. I have received a read receipt, so I will see if this gets any result.

I told him that I am aware of pensioners not receiving any pension at all and that while I realise that my situation is not as serious, I have bills to pay. As my husband is also in the same situation if this continues we will be losing £180 a month due to wrongly deducted tax. They have already collected more than he actually owed, so the longer this goes on the more out of pocket we will be.

If only HMRC would have allowed us to just pay the tax owed in one payment all this rigmarole would be avoided. It is annoying that if we had earned more than £10k interest we would have been able to declare this via self assessment and paid the £2k tax by the end of January 2027, but earning a small fraction of this we have to go through tax code changes to collect the tax this year, even though some of the interest hasn't yet been received.

ClashCityRocker1

m_c_s said:

QrizB said:

The story has made the BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp9jkdx1gp8o

Some former state employees across the country have been left with no income this month after the company managing civil service pensions failed to pay them.
The Civil Service Pension Scheme, which manages the pensions of 1.7 million public sector workers in the UK, has been unable to provide lump sums or regular payments to many people since Capita took over administration of the scheme in December.
Capita said it had been left with a much bigger backlog of cases than originally agreed and apologised to those affected.

Full article at the link.

The BBC cannot even be bothered to report the whole story, they ofcourse omit a key piece, namely the 6 month strike in the Summer that caused most of the huge backlog of cases. Some people still use the BBC solely for their news source but they regularly fail to mention key facts.
No one comes out of this sorry episode looking good; not MyCSP, Capita, the Unions or the Cabinet Office. It's just a shambles.

The strike was because MyCSP refused to recognise or deal with the Union! Striking is basically the only way forward in that circumstance and the management must have known that.

m_c_s

Capita are also NannaGEO said:

CAPITA are also ignoring HMRC Tax code changes for existing pensioners. 

In my case Capita are also not now notifying HMRC of the pension income received each month. It was all fine for November and December payments but HMRC told me they have not received any income notification from Capita for the January payment. HMRC say without the automatic two way communication with their computer system this can affect tax code changes and may result in incorrect tax charges if as in my case you have multiple pension income sources. There is nothing they can do and say it is Capita's computer system that is the issue. The other income sources are ofcourse still automatically updating HMRC with monthly income payments I have received.
Just a complete shambles.

horsewithnoname

The BBC One Show are apparently having a section on CS pensions on Wednesday 

daisy_1571

I saw somewhere else computers are down so not to phone, hang on 3 hours and get told that!  It was posted this morning so maybe fixed now