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

QrizB

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Here's a paragraph from near the start of the article:

The debacle will result in a hit of between £25million and £40million to profits at the outsourcing firm, whose previous failings led critics to insert the letter ‘r’ into its name.

NewtsInThePond

@daisy_1571 details below from the 9 July 2026 This is Money article that you are having trouble getting access to 🙂

Pension chaos at Capita shows why we must keep detailed records of our entitlements: RUTH SUNDERLAND

Keen sailor Adolfo Hernandez has steered Capita into an almighty storm with its disastrous handling of the Civil Service Pension Scheme. Strain was etched on his face, and those of his lieutenants Chris Clements and Richard Holroyd, when the trio appeared in front of MPs on the Public Accounts Committee this week.

The debacle will result in a hit of between £25million and £40million to profits at the outsourcing firm, whose previous failings led critics to insert the letter ‘r’ into its name. Revenues from the contract come in at about £23.5million a year, so in the context of Capita’s overall number of around £2billion, it does not look huge.

The issue is not revenue but reputation. The human cost of the chaos at the scheme, which covers 1.7m people, is heartbreaking. Thousands have suffered delays in receiving their pensions and faced hardship as a result. Grieving families are being put through the wringer at the worst time of their lives due to a backlog on bereavements.

Hernandez said the pile of cases was far bigger than he expected when Capita took over last year from MyCPS, part of financial administration group Equiniti. There seems little hope of rapid relief. Capita found no fewer than 20m records were inaccurate, incomplete or missing. For this reason, of the 4,500-strong pile of bereavement cases, only 1,465 are ‘workable’, to use Capita’s terminology.

The majority lack data or documentation and will be difficult to resolve. This high volume of defective records meant the technology system Capita had built to deal with the scheme could not cope. It promised the Government a flagship project that would be the largest AI-enabled pension scheme in the country. What it delivered was a total mess.

This is extremely worrying, most of all for members of the pension scheme itself but also for Capita’s 29,500 employees. Investors have seen shares in the former FTSE 100 firm fall from £12 in 2015 to 221p this week. It is grist to the mill for Left-wing opponents of outsourcing of public services. The idea of ‘in-sourcing’ the pension contract, or putting it under Government control, is easier said than done. Giving it to another private sector outsourcer would be hard too. There are only a small number that could conceivably take it on, assuming any were daft enough to contemplate such a thing. Capita, then, might end up keeping the contract, even if it would gladly slough it off.

Many questions are unanswered. Why were the records in such a mess when they were handed over? Why did this come as a surprise to Capita? What has Equiniti/MyCPS got to say for itself?

And if the scheme is in such a state, are there others in equal or worse disarray? I’d advise keeping meticulous records of your pension entitlements, if you don’t already.

Pensions chaos: Capita shares tumbled after it flagged a profit hit of up to £40m this year following failures in administering its civil service pension scheme contract

NewtsInThePond

For further weekend reading, here is the Taskforce Update Number 12 from yesterday…from the newby put in charge now, Richard Vianello, Director of Civil Service Pensions Member Knowledge Article

"So long, farewell and thanks for all the fish" 🐬I hear Angela McDonald calling to us, as she departs from our world!!! 😃Hopefully she be more fortunate than many peeps who are stuck in this situation and she get a prompt, straightforward and correct pension quote and be getting her money real soon!😒

horsewithnoname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82065646#Comment_82065646

the records were partially in a mess because MyCsp refused to engage in the TUPE process so the staff did the only thing they could and went on strike until MyCsp saw reason. However that was well known so capita should have been prepared. Certainly the fact that their website was not up and running- and still isn’t - is down to no one but capita.
maybe the government will finally learn that privatisation benefits only shareholders 🙄

ali_bear

Apparently there was meant to be some kind of AI-enablement in the Crapita system that was to be provided by Microsoft. And the failure of MS to deliver a working AI system has hampered progress. Why on Earth anyone thought all of that was a good idea should be sacked. And then shot. Twice.

QrizB

Apparently there was meant to be some kind of AI-enablement in the Crapita system that was to be provided by Microsoft.

Maybe that's how they thought they would be able to deliver it cheaply and with so few staff? MS didn't get where they are today without having an extremely persuasive salesforce. (With apologies to Reggie Perrin's CJ.)

And the failure of MS to deliver a working AI system has hampered progress.

Shocking. Who could have predicted that?

Why on Earth anyone thought all of that was a good idea should be sacked. And then shot. Twice.

I suspect many will agree with you on that.

NewtsInThePond

I attended the Civil Service Live event in London this week (both as a volunteer and participant). One of the sessions I joined was on Civil Service Pensions and I also visited the main Pensions exhibition stand. Saw a demonstration (and had a go!) of the Retirement Modeller Calculator tool, which looks good and like it is able to do the job. However, anyone expecting to use it soon, please do not hold your breath…. I had it from very good authority that it is going to be at least a few more months before the tool is made live for users!

Golactico

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82072179#Comment_82072179

It's a sad indictment of the situation that I'm quite pleasantly surprised at your suggestion that we might have the modeller up and running in 'a few months'. I'll believe it when I see it though.

hugheskevi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82073035#Comment_82073035

Remember that in Angela MacDonald's 12th March update it was promised the Retirement Modeller would be up and running by 31st March. What was meant to be 19 days is still awaited 127 days later.

'A few months' would be at least 600 days based on that delay.

katejo

The latest issue of Which magazine is asking for members with current problems accessing their pensions to contact them. I think they are preparing a feature for a later issue..