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

antonic

I was lucky, as I retired early on 2nd November 2025 and reveived the correct amount of lump sum approx 3 days later.

The correct amount of monthly pension has been since 2nd December 2025 (so far).

The only issue I had was that my manager put my request to retire to MyCSP in Jul 2025 but I didnt get my quote until end of Sept 2025.

I feel for everyone else who has been inconvenienced anfd the HMRC Surge Team staff who have been deployed to try and sort this mess out.

sammyjammy

If you are an ex DWP employee please see info below.

DWP Civil Service Pension hardship line

Telephone number: 0800 232 1945

Open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.

This phone line is for DWP colleagues who have partially retired or fully retired in the last 12 months, who are experiencing financial hardship due to non-payment of their Civil Service Pension. This team can start to discuss the possibility of a hardship loan with you.

Call this number only if:

• You are partially retired in DWP and experiencing financial hardship because of Civil Service Pension delays.
• You have fully retired from DWP in the last 12 months and are experiencing financial hardship because of Civil Service Pension delays.

Do not call this number if:

• Your query is not urgent. Please wait a few weeks before calling Capita. It is important that they can focus on the most urgent cases. Please check our frequently asked questions.
• You are not experiencing financial hardship.
• You want to report financial hardship due to death in service, please call Capita on 0300 123 6666 and press 1. They are working hard to prioritise these urgent cases.
• You are retiring due to ill-health – please call Capita. They are working hard to prioritise these urgent cases.
• You are on a Voluntary Exit Scheme (VES) – DWP is working with Capita on prioritising the VES schemes which are currently live – please stay in touch with your usual points of contact for updates. There is advice on our frequently asked questions for you.
• You are planning to retire. Please stay in touch with your line manager. There is advice on our frequently asked questions for you.

If you call, you will be asked to provide contact details where you can be reached to discuss your personal circumstances. Please have your Civil Service Pension Reference Number, National Insurance number and DWP Staff Number ready, along with a contact telephone number and email address. The call will be recorded

Watoop

I have to say I have never seen something as bad as this customer service-wise in my nearly 60 years. And on something so important financially.

Today I was 40th in the phone queue - in one hour I moved 3 places up that queue meaning I was looking at a 10 hour + wait. This is the fifth time I've tried to talk to someone and had to give up.

Trying to contact via the web form just gives a response that is basically "we can't tell you when we'll reply".

I'm impossible to access any meaningful information on the web portal (which is full of typos and dead links).

It is absolutely horrific.

kermchem

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81880281#Comment_81880281

I shared the link to the government's action plan (posted in this thread yesterday) where it was reported that the call answer rate was 34%, and my OH exploded. Working civil servants in OH's role are expected to answer all calls, and then to be treated like this in return is abysmal.

PensionsStuff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81878329#Comment_81878329

Taking the conversation completely sideways, if I was a Trustee of a Scheme with capital I'd be wondering where they are getting this big influx of pensions staff from and if any of them are coming from the teams that work on my Scheme...

A different employer, different Scheme, and a few years ago, but I remember at an old pensions admin company every office had to contribute 5 people to help battle a backlog of a new client based in our London office, and paid for travel/hotels for two weeks for them to deal with it, that client is backlog sure went down.. the backlog of every other client on all the other teams went up though..

Suzycoll

Reading all these posts absolutely breaks my ❤️

Civil servants are hard working people who have been loyal civil servants for decades (some grades on wages just above NLW)

I will soon be in the position where I may need to claim my CS pension due to ill health.

I'm dreading trying to navigate this. The only income I would have is a VERY small cs pension from part retirement 6 years ago.

I would have to claim benefits in the interim

Good luck all fellow civil servants

Suzycoll

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81861319#Comment_81861319

I had no such letter

QrizB

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81878329#Comment_81878329

I wonder if anyone at Capita has heard of Brooks's Law:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27s_law

westv

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81880612#Comment_81880612

Neither has my wife AFAIK

Universidad

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81880714#Comment_81880714

I think there are several laws it's likely they'll learn about soon. Not sure what you're all expecting to happen with ABS this year, but it's hard to see their statutory duties being fulfilled. Be a heck of a turnaround if they're able to prioritise starting that work by June.