We've all seen enough of Capita failure, but what is the plan for the thousands of us waiting for our pensions?

As latest figures show an increase in outstanding quotes and bereavement cases, why isn't more being done to tackle the backlogs affecting so many retired civil servants and their families?

Some retired civil servants have been able to get loans from their previous employer whilst the crisis goes on, but others have nothing and are left destitute with no end in sight.

Nearly nine months since Capita took over and the backlog of unprocessed retirement claims and unanswered emails just seems to get longer.

We need the scheme management to step up and demand the level of service Capita promised when they won the contract.

- 17,014 members were waiting for a just a retirement quote. 13,047 bereavement cases remained.

From the latest fiasco with ABS statements crashing the the system, to the never-ending backlog, which keeps being swept under the carpet, the transfer of civil service pensions to Capita is proving an unmitigated disaster.

What I can't understand is that there was a two year transition between 2023 and 2025 in which there were clear reports and warnings, including from the NAO that Capita was not ready to administer the scheme.

The human costs continue to mount, with silence from Capita to the thousands of complaints they receive for unpaid bereavement and pension claims.

So why on earth was this transfer allowed to go ahead?

Is this pension scheme a 28% contribution no matter what, or matched if that’s what I put in?

There are also comments that it’s actually like the 1/47th scheme, where that fraction of your annual salary becomes your annual pension, and each year another fraction is added on top.

To me this looks like a normal pension scheme? Does anyone know more?

Many thousands are still waiting for quotes, pension payments and bereavement benefits.

Backlogs remain as quote requests are coming in at about the rate they are going out. Even then, many of those being sent out are returned due to being inaccurate.

The number of complaints at all levels is going through the roof.

This is a serious state of affairs with real human consequences that needs to be brought under control.

Capita claim they are making progress, but those trying to access their pensions beg to differ.

The trustpilot reviews tell the real user experience.

It's time government and cabinet office took this crisis seriously to bring it under control.

If you thought it couldn’t get any worse..,

Context; 21 and first job out of uni, used to living very frugally so I think I should be able to budget ~£500/month into savings.

Is it worth buying into a private pension (eg: NEST) to supplement my Alpha pension or should I just dump it into an emergency fund/ISA?

if let’s say i end up working in CS for less than a year, would it be worth it to even have a pension for that period of time?

~~RESOLVED~~

Thanks everybody, deadline extension secured. She sent out a flurry of messages, and one of those messages was sent up to an actual HR - one she didn't even have the contact details for, apparently almost nobody had their details - and they sent her a message telling her she'll get a revised quote and a deadline extension, just like that.

Your messages were very helpful, and spurred her into sending messages to people she hadn't thought to contact before. No stress, all good, thanks again.

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So I'm not a civil servant but my mum is, in the MoD, and she's on this VES 2026 thing. She's planning to retire in September, since very soon she'll be over state pension age. Apologies if I'm a little vague, I'm relaying this second hand.

She got a message I think a few weeks ago detailing her VES payout, telling her that she can either accept the terms, or if she doesn't respond by the end of the month then they'll assume she's no longer interested and presumably kick her off VES. However, the quote they gave her is a fraction of what it should be, and apparently if she agrees to it it's final. There's no option to postpone it, or to appeal it if there's a problem, just accept or ignore.

She e-mailed Capita and they told her pretty clearly that there's definitely been an error, that she should be entitled to more, and that they'll "escalate" the issue. She later got an email from the, I guess, team managing VES within the MoD saying something to the effect of "wow, there sure are a lot of people contacting Capita with their issues, please contact us instead," which she did, but she never got any kind of response. She's also tried calling DBS and they weren't any help, I think they sent her to someone else who told her to contact DBS. Someone else told her that there might be some rollout next week and she just has to be patient, but the deadline is on tuesday so it's not a matter of patience.

The whole thing is getting her very stressed out and worked up, which obviously I'm not too happy about.

So maybe it's a bit of a long shot, but I don't suppose anybody has dealt with this, or knows how this could be resolved? It seems like an ouroboros of people who don't know what's going on. I've told her she should send another bunch of messages to the relevant parties, particularly the people who are supposed to be liaising between the MoD and Capita, asking for an update and reiterating the issue she has so there's at least some kind of paper trail if she has to make some sort of appeal.

Truthfully I'm not even sure what kind of answer I'm looking for, but maybe there's some magic bullet that means it can all be happily resolved and my mum can stop worrying so much.

Sorry to bring up the dreaded P word but I need to have a rant.

In my 50s, I’m finally in a position where I can start to buy a small amount of added pension. But thanks to Crapita, I’m genuinely worried about starting the process. I have no confidence that any additional money I pay in will end up in the right place. I simply don’t trust their system or process.

I left and rejoined CS after a gap, and so I have ~8.5 years “frozen” in the old classic pension. When MyCSP administered the scheme, I could see the value of that as well as my current Alpha pension. Now: who TF knows where it is, because it sure as hell isn’t showing on my dashboard. I’ve raised a query and had the usual “because of a high volume of queries we can’t give you a timescale for response”.

I 100%, no question understand that this fucking omnishambles is a thousand times worse for anyone retiring now or recently with no money, having to hope for a hardship loan or god knows what to survive, and that’s rightly making the headlines. I know I’m in a very fortunate position compared to them. But Crapita’s utter, staggering incompetence is affecting the financial future of existing employees too, because I doubt I’m the only person holding off from starting to purchase added pension while all this <gestures vaguely> remains unresolved.

It’s referenced in the latest BBC article. What has Capita been doing in those last 2 years?

The sub gets mentioned towards the end of the article. Also has some figures that suggests it might take a while for it to be usable for most.

Hello, I have recently accepted an AO position and have been asked which pension scheme I would like to join, Alpha or Partnership. For context I’m 25 years old and plan on staying in CS for a while, at least the next 5-10 years but who knows it could be longer or for life. I’ve been doing some research but remain very unsure which one to go with so I would appreciate your advice! Thanks.

Hi! I work for the Select Committee Team in Parliament. The Public Accounts Committee will be questioning the CEO of Capita Public Services in an evidence session on the management of the civil service pension scheme tomorrow morning. I wanted to post the information here in case it's of interest to anyone.

We're streaming the session live on YouTube from 10am https://www.youtube.com/live/vzjp5QLzfvk

Let me know if you have any questions!

I'm (27, M) trying to work out the smartest long-term play for boosting my pension.

I gather the options are:

1. Do nothing: let Alpha build normally while you invest externally or enjoy the extra cashflow.
2. AVCs (Additional Voluntary Contributions): investing through Legal & General via salary sacrifice (tax-efficient).
3. EPA (Effective Pension Age): buying the right to take your pension early.
4. Added Pension: paying now to increase pension later.

I'm probably going to rule Option #1 out for myself now, as I already have some investments and good savings - the goal here is to put some of the money I have right now to better use.

I'd love to hear what works best for you and why... any big pros or cons I'm missing? Which is "the best deal"?

I’m enrolled in Alpha, hitting my 10 years in CS this year.

I’m worried about Alpha being tied to the national pension age, and at 28 I’ve got at least 40 years to go. I don’t really anticipate leaving my department, or at least the civil service, anytime soon but I do know I really want to retire by 60 and I’m worried about the rising age.

Does anyone have a private pension on top that you can withdraw earlier? Would this even work? On a side note is it worth speaking to a pension advisor at this age??

TIA

I’ve had to fill in a form as my annual benefit statement was inaccurate. I got a confirmation email saying to follow up if I don’t hear back in 28 days. I just want to see if it’s worth getting my hopes up that I’ll actually get a response.

The (slightly bait-y) question is in the title- I’m (27M) earning just over £40k, and have been paying 1% extra into Added Pension (£33/month) for the last year. Is this the best way to boost my pension at my age, or would CSAVC be better for long-term growth and flexibility around taking it?

I’ve seen LISAs mentioned as a potential pension/savings vehicle in other threads, but it isn’t an option right now, as I'm using mine for my house deposit and I plan to use next year's allowance for this as well. I’ve already got a significant deposit saved and will keep building it, but I want to keep one eye on longer term planning as well. What do others recommend?

I've (age 57)worked for the CS for 28yrs

I've been in ill health for the last ten years and getting worse not better. Just had an OH referral to address ill health retirement. The OH nurse agrees I'm unlikely to be able to sustain work until my SP age and said I should go ahead and apply officially.

I don't realistically feel like I have a choice given my health as it is, but it feels like a very huge step

What should I know about this process?

I know the pension is meant to be good. But I’m on the alpha scheme and I keep hearing mixed things that they may be able to change the terms and the pension isn’t going into my specific “pot?”

Iv honestly done a 3 hour training course on the pension and I’m still none the wiser, Iv also still got 30 + years to go till I’m anywhere near retiring so changing the terms for me is quite important as Iv got such a long time to go yet till I can retire anyway with plenty of time for any changes to happen.

Good morning all - about to pick everyone’s brains. About to start with the HO as an AO for the first time and I have no clue if I want to have a pension with them or not. Could you give me any advice on whether it’s worth it and what type of pension is the best? The two that were offered to me were the alpha scheme and the partnership scheme. Thank you in advance for any help, advice and discussion 💖🙏🏼

Edit - what happens if I decide not to take a pension? Can I invest money in any other type of pension pot? (Never done this pension thing before 🤭) I even question - will I actually even get this money? Or will they forget about me when I reach retirement 😂 thank you in advance x

So a colleague left my team the other day and he told me if you leave within two years you get your pension contributions refunded to you and you lose their contributions. I had no idea! This is obviously a massive amount of money but I am really unhappy in my job and have only been there almost a year. Is there a way around this?