Correspondence

Civil Service Pension Recovery Plan Update - 2 March 2026

Updated 2 March 2026

Rapid action continues to be taken to address the delays to service experienced by members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme. Working closely with the scheme administrators, Capita, the Civil Service Pensions Taskforce is focused on restoring service through a series of intensive three-week sprints to ensure remedial activity is appropriately prioritised. While core payroll for approximately 732,000 existing pensioners has remained stable, a specialist taskforce is currently executing an intensive recovery plan to clear backlogs inherited at the point of handover of suppliers.

Significant milestones have been reached since the last update to address the case backlog and improve communication response times. Performance in the contact centre has improved significantly following the deployment of additional helpline advisers. In the last week in February more than 90% of calls were answered in 30 seconds for much of the week. and the overall answer rate has increased to 99%, compared to 27% in January. To ensure resources remain focused on urgent cases, members are advised to avoid calling the helpline unless the matter is essential.

The recovery effort concluded Sprint 2 on 22 February, which focused on the restoration of normal service levels for the most critical cohorts. The priority work to resolve outstanding death-in-service and ill-health retirement cases has made significant progress and Capita has now settled all cases where members have provided the necessary documentation. Performance for both workstreams has been restored to standard service level requirements, and we will continue to process cases as soon as member information is received.

Progress is also being made on the backlog of members awaiting pension payments after receiving a quotation. Of the 6,078 outstanding lump sums and arrears inherited at transition, payments have either been made or, in a small number of cases, missing documentation has been followed up. In some cases 70% of pension arrears were also paid.  Remaining pension arrears are scheduled for payment within the next eight weeks, and interest will be applied to all delayed sums. More information on the payment of interest can be found here.

The inherited 15,000 unread emails have all been opened and assessed. Many of these emails related to administrative updates, such as changes of name or address, and any urgent issues identified were cross-referenced with existing complaints and processed via alternative routes.

Sprint 3 begins today, 2 March, and will run until 20 March. This phase will focus on the final resolution of priority backlogs and ensuring the system is prepared for long-term stability. The taskforce aims to return all aspects of the service to standard contractual levels by June 2026, with the backlog being incrementally reduced leading up to this point.

Communications to members has now turned to quotations with information about the approach to the oldest inherited quotations and information has been provided via Departments and the Civil Service Pensions website.