Capita - January 2026

In October, Watchdog heard from some former teachers who faced months of delays receiving their pension from the administrator, Capita. The company blamed delays on external bodies but promised extra resources to sort the issue. Now, Watchdog is hearing from some Civil Service retirees who say, they too, are facing delays when trying to access their pension.

We heard from Nick from Bangor who hasn’t received a £28,000 lump sum or any of the £800 a month, he’s owed. We also heard from Diane from Bradford who has struggled without her payments and 61-year-old Dave, who was expecting his pension payments to start last week.

When we put our findings to Capita, it told us that when it took over administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme on the 1st December 2025, a backlog of 86,000 cases was inherited from the previous administrator, a significant proportion of which was already overdue. We were told that this led to a higher-than-expected volume of calls and complex queries, which created further issues.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson told us that the issues being faced by former civil servants are unacceptable, and said it is offering immediate financial support for civil servants and family members facing a delay in their first payments.
It said that a dedicated team is working urgently with Capita, with 650 full-time staff across Government and Capita, clearing critical cases – including death in service and ill-health cases – by the end of February. It added that it sets regular targets for improvement to reduce the wider backlog, and reach expected service levels over the next two months.

It said that while significant backlogs and delays were left by the previous provider, MyCSP, the Cabinet Office reserves its contractual rights to take action under the contract with Capita if the recovery plan is not met.

When we asked why Capita’s takeover went ahead on 1st December 2025, despite the warnings it would not be ready, we were told that the contract with Capita was signed in 2023, and the transfer in December 2025 took place following a detailed assessment of Capita’s readiness. According to the Cabinet Office, it had already exercised its contractual right to impose financial penalties for delays. It went on to say that it’s clear that there have been unacceptable issues faced by some former civil servants since this transfer, and that Capita underestimated the scale of backlogs in cases.

Finally, we were told that both Capita and the Cabinet Office take their responsibilities very seriously, that they are urgently working together to put this right, and are deeply sorry for the worry, frustration, and distress caused.
We also wrote to MyCSP, but we didn’t hear back.

You can watch the full piece here, for 28 days - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002ql1m/the-one-show-28012026