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

hugheskevi

There is a new update from Richard Vianello at this link. It makes for rather depressing reading - with assurance that improving the member portal is the the highest priority technical issue, despite promises of improvements dating back months. That is off the back of the entirely predictable consequences of choosing to issue all ABS in a single week.

78,000 ABS were not issued by the statutory deadline, and will be sent out in September and October. There was no mention of incorrect ABS being issued, nor whether the scheme will be reporting this failure against another statutory deadline to the Regulator.

Figures for late quotes remain confusing. There was a backlog of about c4,000 at the end of June, and 3,087 quotes were issued by the end of August - it is implied but not explicitly stated that the 3,087 quotes were part of the c4,000 end June backlog. Presumably more cases have entered the backlog since end June, but that is not mentioned. The absence of a clear number of overdue quotes at the current time is concerning, given it would be expected to be included if it were available, rather than these partially updated numbers.

There is also some updated Public Account Committee correspondence at this link and this link, but they say nothing of interest.

There was no mention of the forthcoming 6th October deadline to issue Pension Saving Statements to those who may have an Annual Allowance charge to pay. Given the ongoing failures, it would have been helpful to have some reassurance that those statements will be issued on time, given they contain the information required for members to calculate and pay their tax liability through their 2025/26 self-assessment return.

There is also no mention of the growing pile of unanswered member queries. The surge team initially triaged those, but in recent months the focus has been elsewhere. It seems Cabinet Office sets a priority, Capita moves resources to that area to address it, and the area from which resources were moved is left to slip back into failure until it next becomes a Cabinet Office priority area.

Updated tracking tables below.

Caseload backlog, September 2026 (estimated)

	Total	In progress	Awaiting 3rd party input
Cases over 100 days since origination
Death-in-service	308	41	267
Ill health retirements	12	1	11
Bereavement	1,069	266	803
Arrears and pension into payment*	288	66	222
Retirement quotes	900	These cases were in a backlog of 4,000 at the end of June and still not processed in early September. Presumably more have entered the backlog. Capita claim to issue quotes within 6 weeks.
Sub total	2,577	374	1,303
Other cases (all cases, not only those beyond 100 days)
Divorce (existing cases)	1,400	800	600
2015 Remedy	400	Was due by end June - to have implemented at least 400 of the Immediate Choice elections received but not yet implemented from the statements sent out between January and March 2025 (commitment made by Capita at 26th March Public Accounts Committee hearing [see Q233]
Annual Benefit Statements	78,000	498,000 (86%) were issued to statutory deadline, but errors are being reported on public forums. Remaining ABS will be issued in September and October.
Transfers	n/a	Delays to transfer quotes due to backlog.
Combined total	84,954

• some members report that although arrears have been paid, 2026 Pension Increase has not been included, so a further arrears payment will be due. It is unclear whether these members are included in the figures in this row

Other overdue deliverables

Reduce telephone answering time	9 minutes across all cases, longer for non-priority calls (Cabinet Office said 3-4 minutes, Capita say 8m 47s, as at 8th July 2026)
Parliamentary raised cases	1,900 - managed by daily virtual surgeries. Many MPs reporting these surgeries are ineffective. These will presumably be mostly recorded within the categories in the table above.
Member queries	If raised via portal, the case is commonly shown as In Progress then typically does not progress at all. Most phone queries result in being told Capita is aware of the query, no timetable is available, and if pushed that it will be escalated. Nothing then comes of the call.
Exit and redundancy quotes to employers	Capita supply initial and final quotes for paid exits and redundancies, and there are reports of these being significantly behind schedule
Portal updates	Angela MacDonald confirmed on 8th July that a further update is due. Capita previously said that only 1% of members don't have access, but many were still reporting lost access (username or password suddenly unrecognised and can't be reset). Track My Case is extremely basic and only shows whether a case is open or closed. Uploading of documents is problematic (only one at a time, or limited size of document, or unable to upload anything at all). On 3rd September improving portal performance was escalated as the highest priority technical issue and ensuring all users can sign in.
Pre 2025 Annual Benefit Statements	Were due to be put in the member portal, overdue, no recent updates

Forthcoming deadlines

Early September	All bereavement cases to be cleared
September	Update due about 2015 Remedy / McCloud
30th September	More complicated cases back to service delivery agreement levels, aside from about 600 of the most complicated cases
6th October	Statutory deadline for Pension Saving Statements to be issued
Mid October	Retirement modeller due to be added to portal
31st October	All late ABS/RSS to be issued by now
31st October	Deadline for Pension Dashboard connection
Unspecified	Recovery of interest free loans once overdue cases are resolved and pension paid - this will mostly be Departmental led activity
Unspecified	Implement new actuarial factors based on new SCAPE discount rate of CPI+2% (not all factors produced by the Govt Actuary's Dept yet so no timeline).
Unspecified	Interest payments made for late payments
Unspecified	Individual claims for loss to be set up at a later date
31st March 2027	Revised deadline for Remedial Service Statements to be issued (from 31st March 2025). This is under discussion with Capita.
6th April 2027	Implement Inheritance Tax changes
Mid 2027	Last stated planned date by which to complete delivery of McCloud / 2015 Remedy - Immediate Choice Remedy Saving Statements all issued (and presumably remaining deferred members RSS), as well as things like Contingent Decisions, EPA compensation, etc.

Yorkie1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126124#Comment_82126124

Yes, the accrual for my EPA -2 appeared on the main (age 67) row rather than the EPA (age 65) row, unlike in previous years' ABS; see my post and the reply from hugheskevi to it slightly upthread.

I have several years until I reach 60, so I'm going to leave it until perhaps next spring if Capita has capacity by then to look into it, or otherwise until the next ABS to see if it has been corrected. The maths is quite easy so I have my own records, which I know are accurate

FloraandFauna

My current alpha seems correct, but it is a very plain 8 years of basic scheme, with no added EPA bells or whistles.

I do have a deferred Classic as well though (5 years break in service) - which is at least showing as existing on the site (which is more than MyCSP managed) - but with no details in it. Does anyone know if deferred ABSs are included in the category "pre 2025 ABSs", or if that is only for current schemes and deferred ones haven't made it onto the to-do list yet?

hugheskevi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126814#Comment_82126814

The pre-25 ABS will just be copies of active member Annual Benefit Statements containing the same information that was previously issued. However, my personal expectation is that there is a high chance they will never materialise, given there is no point in having an old ABS when you have a more recent one showing the same information. There is some merit in terms of being able to check for errors and inconsistencies, but that is quite an inefficient way of going about error-checking compared to an administrator-led exercise.

You are entitled to a deferred ABS upon request and it should be supplied within 2 months of the request, although that statutory entitlement appears to be something else that is going unactioned.

indiasign

”It seems Cabinet Office sets a priority, Capita moves resources to that area to address it, and the area from which resources were moved is left to slip back into failure until it next becomes a Cabinet Office priority area.”

This actually sums up my 40 year experience of working in both NGDBs and the Civil Service, with “targets” being a continual game of spinning plates! 🙁

Not enough resources to go around, and what little you have being used to dash from one pole to the next to try to keep the plates spinning - inevitably, one or other of the piles of plates comes crashing down!

chuffinnora

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126824#Comment_82126824

The reason why the pre-2025 ABS could be useful, is that for example my wifes 2025 ABS has been added which covers here short time on Alpha (only 1 year). But the majority of her pension earned was a Classic between 1985-1994. None of that is shown on this ABS, but was on pre-2025 ones.

So effectively MIA until it (if) appears on the portal.

FloraandFauna

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126824#Comment_82126824

Thank you, @hugheskevi. I have kept paper copies of previous requests, but think I will hold off asking for the deferred classic 2025-26 until at least the end of the year. They have more important things to be fixing and I can do my own calculations in the meantime.

ClashCityRocker1

I partially retired in 2025 and nearly all my accrued pension at the same time, but have accrued more alpha since. I can work out pretty accurately what I have accrued. But that is no thanks to Capita who have not produced an 2025/2026 ABS for me. I've asked for a Pension Input Statement too but hold out little hope of getting that either.

My two worries are that I will want to fully retire soon (probably August 2027 but subject to change), and would like to ensure I am within the £60K limit for pension relief but obviously need the pension input statement. Won't lose any sleep at about it, to be honest, but it's a woeful mess and pretty well inexcusable what has been done to CS pensions.

WorryPot

Hello everyone, this is my first posting, although I have been avidly following this thread since January. Thank you all for your very informative postings. I must admit I am very worried by what I have read.

I am a 'Deferred' member, due to start my Civil Service Pension as from July next year (2027). I am subject to the McCloud Remedy options.

Being a 'Deferred' member, I do not automatically receive Annual Benefit Statements. Therefore, I applied for one a couple of months ago. My request is currently recorded in my CS Portal account under 'Pension Documentation' > 'Request an Annual Benefit Statement'. It remains marked as 'In progress', with no updates.

May I politely ask if any other 'Deferred' member has requested their ABS and if they have actually received anything? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

ljayljay

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82128290#Comment_82128290

Welcome WorryPot...

To be honest I think it would have been unusual if you had received a response..

I am also a deferred member, so in theory would have been due an updated pension calculation for 25/26. However, my deferred pension was payable from May 26 & so I applied approx 9 months ago. I have still yet to hear anything, despite 3 secure message requests. I will probably give them a follow up call soon.

The main thing for you is to apply for your pension in good time, at least 4 months in advance. I would sincerely hope that by the time your pension is due in July 27 the backlog is cleared & you will receive your pension on time.

Meanwhile, you should be able to calculate your deferred pension by using the previous years figures & applying the CPI inflation for the 25/26 year, which I believe was 3.8%.