Civil Service Pensions

Debate between Gagan Mohindra and Sally Jameson

Monday 26th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gagan Mohindra (South West Hertfordshire) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for her statement. Elizabeth from Carpenders Park served as a Ministry of Justice usher for 23 years before retiring in January. Months later, she has still not received a single pension payment. That is despite spending more than two hours sitting in queues on the phone while simultaneously being prevented from using the pensions portal due to the high volume of inquiries. I am conscious that the Minister is encouraging casework to be brought to her via her good offices, but I am mindful that there will be a lot of casework across the House. What effort is she putting forward so that both Capita and the Cabinet Office increase capacity to deal with the backlog, as well as new cases?

[Sally Jameson]

I am sorry to hear of Elizabeth’s experience. It is totally unacceptable, as are so many of the cases that we have heard about today—and so many that we will not hear about, too. As the hon. Member will know, the Cabinet Office supplied nearly 150 staff in a surge team to help support Capita in processing the backlog. We also now have senior Cabinet Office officials working every single day with Capita to ensure that it is dealing with the complex cases that need serious expertise to be processed. We will continue to support Capita in any way we can. The remedial report noted that the technology let Capita down in a big way. It has now put some further resource and money into the technology, so automation should help process some cases faster. The biggest learning from the report is that while Capita said it would be an AI-enabled pension scheme, that just was not the reality.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gagan Mohindra and Sally Jameson

Thursday 10th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sally Jameson]

Capita’s performance has been totally abysmal, and I too have raised it a number of times in this House. I can assure my hon. Friend that we will be holding Capita to account, including withholding nearly £10 million of contractual payments, because we will not pay for services that have not been delivered. If my hon. Friend writes to me, I will ensure that his case is investigated, and I will get back to him at the earliest possible opportunity.

[Mr Gagan Mohindra (South West Hertfordshire) (Con)]

Despite dedicating their lives to public service through long careers in the civil service, many of my constituents have faced severe delays with their pension payments, causing them anxiety and financial hardship. How will the Minister ensure that her Department gives my constituents the support they need, that this crisis is resolved and, just as importantly, that it does not happen again?

[Sally Jameson]

An independent, Capita-funded remedial adviser has been appointed to identify service delivery issues and to allow us to continue to hold Capita fully accountable. Around 147 surge staff have been deployed in this crisis. The Government remain committed to maintaining resource levels. No team members will be withdrawn from that surge team until service levels are permanently fixed. As I have said in my previous answers, we are using all commercial levers at our disposal, including withholding those payments, so that Capita is held accountable. We are looking closely at options for bringing the pension scheme in-house.