Troubleshooter steps in as Capita and civil service bosses apologise for pension scheme issues
An HMRC troubleshooter is stepping in to steer an “pressing restoration plan” because the civil service pension scheme experiences difficulties, following the switch to new provider. There are actually plans so as to add an additional 150 employees to the service, prioritise pressing circumstances and assist individuals in monetary hardship.
Civil service COO and the boss of recent provider Capita have apologised for issues because the civil service pension scheme (CSPS) administration modifications fingers, blaming a case backlog for issues.
In a joint assertion, civil service COO Catherine Little, and Capita CEO Adolfo Hernandez, wrote to “deal with the intense points affecting civil service pension scheme members”.
In 2023, the Cupboard Workplace awarded Capita a seven-year contract value £239m for the administration of the CSPS, which has 1.5 million members. In October 2025, by a public accounts committee (PAC) report, MPs warned that there have been issues that Capita wouldn’t be able to take over the pension scheme’s administration from MyCSP by 1 December 2025.
Members of the scheme have reported issues corresponding to “problem logging into the portal, incomplete pension particulars, lengthy waits on customer support calls, and delays to pension quotes and funds”, in keeping with the assertion from the bosses. They added that this has precipitated monetary hardship in some circumstances.
Pressing restoration plan
The assertion pointed to a backlog of circumstances to cope with as a purpose for the issues: “When Capita took over administration on 1 December 2025, they inherited a backlog of 86,000 circumstances from the earlier administrator, a big proportion of which was already overdue. This led to increased than anticipated volumes of calls and sophisticated queries which created additional points.
“This isn’t the service members deserve. Capita and the Cupboard Workplace are deeply sorry for the fear, frustration and misery this has precipitated – notably for these coping with bereavement or in poor health well being.”
Angela MacDonald, deputy CEO on the HMRC, will now lead oversight of an pressing restoration plan. This may embrace an extra 150 Capita employees, together with short-term monetary help for individuals struggling hardship. Capita stated that it expects to revive service ranges for probably the most pressing circumstances by the tip of February.
October’s PAC report on the administration of the CSPS cited insufficient employees ranges, unrealistic automation targets and missed IT milestones as issues. MPs stated a deliberate discount to the workforce, over-ambitious automation targets and the choice to make use of a simplified IT choice within the interim solid doubt on Capita assembly the deadline.
The report additionally stated Capita plans to scale back the variety of employees working the scheme by 33 to 299. The Cupboard Workplace, which awarded the contract, instructed the PAC that fewer employees can be wanted as automation expertise is adopted. “For instance, it was assumed in Capita’s plans that 95% of transactions can be automated,” the report acknowledged.
The PAC stated Capita has additionally missed milestones for delivering its IT infrastructure and can now produce a simplified IT system when the contract begins, “to de-risk supply, with additional performance presently anticipated to be deployed by March 2026”.
Capita instructed Laptop Weekly in October that it is going to be using extra employees (506) than have been employed by MyCSP (332).
