Civil Service Pension Scheme: Administration

Gregory Campbell Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I am grateful to my colleagues for attending this morning’s debate. After reading many emails from constituents, it is clear that the issue before us today is not just an admin problem. It has caused real worry, stress and financial hardship to people who spent decades serving the public, trusting that their pension would be paid properly and on time. The scale of the problem is now very large and affects people across the country.

Since Capita took over running the scheme on 1 December 2025, the Public and Commercial Services Union has been flooded with complaints. Members report long delays, mixed messages and very poor service. This is happening while there is a large backlog of cases passed on from the previous provider, MyCSP. Thousands of people are now stuck waiting. The result is stress, uncertainty and real financial hardship, which is not acceptable. The seriousness of it has been accepted at the highest level. Last week Cat Little, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, wrote to civil servants to admit that the service being provided falls short of what members should expect.

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

A couple of weeks ago at Prime Minister’s questions I raised the issue of a very young civil servant trying to access her pension as she has only months to live. It was an exceptionally difficult and heartrending story, but thankfully, because of the appearance of her case at Prime Minister’s questions, the issue was resolved shortly afterwards. The point that was made then and since is that it should not take raising something at Prime Minister’s questions to get issues resolved. We need to get Capita, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and the Cabinet Office or whoever to sort the issues out as quickly as possible.

[Lorraine Beavers]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. The seriousness of it has been accepted at the highest level. As I was saying, Cat Little, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, wrote to the civil servants to admit that the service falls short of what members should expect. That alone should worry us all. We have also seen reports that some former civil servants have been left without any pension income at all because payments have not been made since Capita took over.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I thank the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Fleetwood (Lorraine Beavers). We all owe the hon. Lady a debt for bringing forward this issue, and our constituents would agree.

I have constituents who are close to defaulting on their mortgages without their appropriate payments, and we cannot allow Capita to continue fobbing those people off. I spoke to the Minister before the debate and it is not their fault; it is Capita’s. However, my constituents would say—I hope the Chair will find my language okay—“It is time to kick ass in Capita”. I could say something worse—although I had better not.

[Mr Campbell]

My hon Friend had better not!

[Jim Shannon]

Let me read out an email sent by a lady who worked for almost 50 years in the civil service at His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. If anyone knows how to work the figures, then this lady does. Yet she is powerless in the face of Capita.

“I joined the Civil Service in September 1977 and retired from it on the 31 December 2025. I worked in the Inland Revenue that then became HMRC. I have not received my lump sum or final details of my pension. I telephoned Capita on the 13 January and after hanging on the line for 2hrs 10 mins (being 12 in the queue) was told by Helen a chaser would be made to processing.

She was unable to let me speak with a manager or processing and confirmed there are issues with logging/registering with the new pensions portal.

I telephoned again today and after hanging on for nearly 5hrs was told by Lilly she would send an escalation today to her manager Adrian. I asked for a call back & whilst Lilly agreed to make this request to her manager she could not guarantee it could be done. I explained I could not get onto the pension portal and she advised the issues with it would not be sorted until March.”

That is the lived experience of a lady who has dedicated almost 50 years of her working life to the civil service—a lady who knew the penalties in place for those who are paid late and who could listen to the extenuating circumstances that someone was going through. I know that the Minister is not responsible but, my goodness Capita needs a throttling.

I have five questions. Why did civil service pensions not postpone the changeover to Capita until the issues with the existing scheme were resolved? When can deadlines for resolving the issues be set? Why was the resolution of the McCloud issues not adequately resourced? When will the remaining contingent decision routes procedures be issued? Will the affordability test be applied to civil service pensions, and if so, when? The affordability test is a clause in the pension scheme allowing it to reduce the pension if it looks like it will become unaffordable. These are the implications of what happens. People can find themselves with a pension that is less than it should have been.

The Government know that the country does not operate without our knowledgeable, hard-working civil servants, but our obligation to them does not end with their final day—it continues. We are failing those who gave so much—and this must end right now.