Retired civil servants left in pension limbo

Since the company that was handling civil service pensions refused to pay them, several former state employees around the country were left homeless this month. The Civil Service Pension Scheme, which oversees 1,200 pensions, is the subject of a hefty pension fund. Since Capita took over the operation in December, 7 million public sector employees in the United Kingdom have been unable to provide lump sums or regular payments to many people. Capita said it had been left with a much larger backlog of cases than had expected and apologised to those affected. If he does not receive his pension by the end of the month, one retired man, Steve Duell, told the BBC that if he didn't get his checks by the month's end.

After 40 years at the Land Registry, the 65-year-old Hull resident retired on January 1st. He should have received a lump sum shortly after, but he has no details about his retirement plan. Steve said he made several attempts to contact the administrators, including spending nearly 15 hours on the phone on hold.

We don't have any funds, and we have a lot of financial commitments.

We need to pay off car loans and make mortgage payments.

We arranged to get building work done on the house on the assumption of receiving a lump sum at the start of January,

he said. Capita, an outsourcing services company, took over the contract in December after a lead-in time of two years. It manages pensions for public sector employers, including HMRC, the Welsh government, Transport Scotland, the Crown Prosecution Service, Defra, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which includes HMRC. Paul McKenna, a Liverpool man, spent the majority of his working life with Inland Revenue and HMRC. Since being the subject of a heart bypass procedure, he decided to retire early on health issues. Before ending work on November 30, he gave the required five months' notice to start his pension. He had hoped to pay off his mortgage and then live off his pension payments but he's now waiting.

The anxiety has been affecting my sleep, it's bad for my angina.

I'm supposed to be married in September, but this has left me with a lot of confusion,

he said. When he called, he waited for an hour on hold before being told the news:

The building is on fire and we've had to evacuate.

He said he said twice before attempting to get through, only to learn that his complaint was with the

resolutions team.

Inherited backlog

Capita has previously been chastised for their teaching teachers' pensions in England and Wales, and has since lost the deal to rival Tata. The Civil Service Pension Scheme was managed by MyCSP until the end of November 2025. Capita took over the partnership on December 1 in a seven-year contract worth £239 million. Capita also opened a new online portal for customers to view forecasts of their expected pensions and lump sum payments. However, the portal launch was plagued with bugs. Capita said in a letter to the BBC that when it took over it, it had anticipated a backlog of 37,000 cases, but the truth number of outstanding cases was 86,000. Capita claims that the project now has more than 500 employees, double the number of the previous one.

Our teams are tirelessly to eliminate the backlog we inherited and answer member questions as quickly as possible.

We sincerely regret the disruption caused to our employees,

the company said. Capita will not be able to takeover the proposed takeover by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee in October.

It's really frustrating for this committee to be scrutinizing a topic that should be handled as efficiently as civil service pensions,

committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said at the time.

Scheme members who have devoted their careers to public service should be reassured that it is under safe control. The Cabinet Office is in charge of governing the administrator's employment. According to a Cabinet Office spokesperson, the program was

committed to working with Capita to ensure the scheme's success and [to] protect the interests of all members.

We are aware of the problems that certain members have faced and we have ordered Capita to fix them quickly,the spokesperson said.Capita has been reassured that targeted fixes will be released to better satisfy member and employer needs.

This fiasco is very sad for those who have worked and paid into their pension throughout their working lives,

Fran Heathcote, the PCS union's general secretary, said. "We believe that this service should be carried out by the civil service under ministerial oversight so that it can be properly funded and pensions paid on time.