Committee publication · Correspondence · 25 March 2026
Letter from the Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office relating to Administration of the Civil Service Pensions Scheme, 24 March 2026
From: Public Accounts Committee
Inquiry: Civil service pensions
Summary
The Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary updates the Public Accounts Committee on recovery efforts following failures in the Civil Service Pensions Scheme handover to Capita in 2025. As of mid-March 2026, 769 transitional support loans totalling £4 million have been issued; a specialist taskforce is operating agile recovery sprints with contact centre performance improving; the Cabinet Office expects core pension functions to return to contractual levels by end-June 2026.
Key findings
- 58 employers have issued 769 transitional support loans worth £4 million as of 17 March 2026; 76 additional employers are set up to issue loans and 68 smaller employers are still being contacted.
- Both Cabinet Office and Capita knew work-in-progress volumes would exceed the assumed 37,300 cases; Capita was instructed in July 2025 to prepare for up to 100,000 cases but failed to deliver full IT, automation and portal functionality at go-live.
- Disagreement exists over data integrity: MyCSP acknowledges around 1 million data errors versus Capita's claim of 20 million corrupt lines; Cabinet Office and Capita are undertaking data reconciliation.
- Recovery progress shows average contact centre wait times reduced to 1 minute 28 seconds with 99.68% call answer rates; all inherited retirement lump sum payments processed where full information provided.
- Cabinet Office expects all core pension functions to return to standard contractual levels by 30 June 2026; 143 surge staff deployment is under continuous review; transition milestone payments are being withheld and service credits applied for performance failures.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Catherine Little CB, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Capita Pension Solutions, MyCSP, Cabinet Office, Second Permanent Secretary at HMRC, Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)
Notable line
“… the service levels experienced by members have been unacceptable.”
Key Quotes
“… the service levels experienced by members have been unacceptable. The Cabinet Office has prioritised the restoration of service, standing up an expert recovery taskforce to ensure the service returns to the standards our members expect.”
“Both the Cabinet Office and Capita knew that the volume of work in progress transferred by MyCSP would exceed the assumed 37,300 cases, and Capita was specifically instructed in July 2025 to prepare for volumes of up to 100,000.”
“We acknowledge there is a difference of position regarding the scale of data errors at the point of transfer from MyCSP to Capita.”
“My clear expectation is that all core pension functions, including new retirement processing and quotations, return to standard contractual levels by the end of June 2026 …”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗