Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of delays in processing Civil Service pension cases by Capita on pension recipients.

The Cabinet Office awarded Capita the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme in November 2023 under the previous government. The current delays facing scheme members are entirely unacceptable, and this Government has taken firm action to resolve them through a clear recovery plan with strict delivery milestones. We have deployed additional resources to expedite priority cases, ensuring that serving and former staff receive the high standard of service they deserve. Regular progress updates remain available to members via the pension portal and Gov.uk.

Capita is under a firm mandate to restore full service delivery to standard contractual levels by the end of June 2026. We are actively exploring the use of all available commercial and contractual levers and continue to withhold milestone payments for missed transition deliverables. All options remain on the table if they fail to meet the June deadline.

Capita has issued lump sum payments to 16,179 retired members awaiting their regular pensions, whilst the scheme continues to pay approximately 730,000 existing pensioners on time. To alleviate immediate hardship, employers have issued £12.9 million in Transitional Support Loans to 2,389 members, alongside interest-free bridging loans ranging from £5,000 to £20,000. Members will fully repay these bridging loans upon receipt of their formal pension payments

Existing civil servants who have partially retired or a civil servant who retired from 1 January 2025, can contact their employer to access the transition support loan.

Pension scheme members not in the scope of this loan scheme, but who are at risk of experiencing financial hardship due to the delayed payment of their pension, should contact Capita and mention the financial impact of these delays. Capita will then prioritise resolution of these cases.

The scheme will automatically pay interest on delayed benefits to protect members from financial loss. The statutory complaints process evaluates claims for financial loss, distress, and inconvenience on a case-by-case basis and is operated in strict accordance with the standards set by the Pensions Ombudsman.