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Re:

Capita disputes PAC claims over Civil Service Pension Scheme handover

The PAC’s October 2025 readiness warning and Capita’s rebuttal centred on technology, transition planning and disputed staffing figures. The handover went ahead, but the Cabinet Office later reported incomplete service recovery.
From TheFinanceBase Team4 min to read
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In October 2025, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) warned that Capita might not be ready to take over administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS). Capita disputed the report’s account, including its description of staffing. The transfer nevertheless went ahead on 1 December 2025; later official updates described serious service problems and incomplete recovery.

What the Public Accounts Committee warned about

The PAC published its Forty-Ninth Report on the scheme on 24 October 2025, ahead of the planned 1 December handover from MyCSP to Capita. Its central concern was transition readiness, not a finding about Capita’s performance after taking over. The Committee wrote: “There is a clear risk that Capita will not be ready to take over administration of the Scheme as planned on 1 December 2025.”

Milestones and technology

Of the eight transition milestones that had passed by the time of the report, the Committee said only one had all its elements delivered on time. The Cabinet Office told the PAC that Capita had underestimated both the transition’s complexity and the time needed to implement technology.

Capita and the Cabinet Office had agreed to begin with a simplified IT solution on the transfer date to reduce delivery risk, with more functionality expected later. The PAC said the Cabinet Office was resetting the plan and intended to make a go/no-go decision; the evidence before the Committee did not confirm that a decision to proceed had been made. Although the Cabinet Office said it had contingency options, the PAC noted that there was no agreement with MyCSP to keep its digital systems available in the worst case. It recommended that the Cabinet Office fully develop its contingency plans and report on the transition decision.

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Staffing and automation assumptions

The PAC said Capita’s first-year plan was for 299 staff, compared with MyCSP’s core staffing level of 332 in January 2025—a difference of 33. It also said the plan assumed 95% transaction automation and that greater automation and system functionality would reduce the number of staff needed. Because technology was delayed, fewer transactions could be automated at first, the Committee said, so staffing would need to be replanned.

What Capita disputed

Computer Weekly reported on 24 October 2025 that Capita called the PAC report inaccurate and “not reflective of the current state of the transition”. It quoted Capita as saying it was “preparing to take on administration of the Civil Service Pensions Scheme (CSPS) from 1 December 2025, working with the Cabinet Office to support a successful transition.”

The staffing figures use different stated bases

Figure What it refers to Attribution and date
299 staff Capita’s planned first-year staffing level, as described in the PAC report Public Accounts Committee report, published 24 October 2025
332 staff MyCSP’s core staffing level in January 2025, as described in the PAC report Public Accounts Committee report, published 24 October 2025
506 people Capita’s stated anticipated staffing figure, as reported by Computer Weekly; Capita contrasted it with 332 then employed by MyCSP Capita’s claim, reported by Computer Weekly on 24 October 2025

The available accounts do not explain whether the 299 and 506 figures count the same roles, dates or workforce categories. Capita’s figure is its claim as reported by Computer Weekly, not an independently verified headcount. The sources therefore do not settle the disagreement by directly comparing those numbers.

The transfer happened, but the readiness dispute was followed by service problems

The scheme transferred from MyCSP to Capita on 1 December 2025. That outcome does not, by itself, settle the PAC’s concerns about the transition plan. The National Audit Office (NAO) says Capita struggled to administer the scheme effectively after handover and repeatedly missed key service levels. It reports that members struggled to access information and that some retirees waited for payments.

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The NAO’s work-in-progress investigation is examining the transition, Capita’s administration since December 2025 and Cabinet Office oversight. Its page describes an ongoing investigation, not final findings; it does not establish a definitive allocation of responsibility or a final account of causes.

The Cabinet Office’s September 2026 update

In a written statement dated 9 September 2026, Parliamentary Secretary Sally Jameson said Capita had failed to meet its commitment to restore the scheme to contractual service levels by the end of June. Capita’s executive leadership then set targets to clear workable stock by 1 September and process cases within key performance indicators from 30 September.

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The Cabinet Office said Capita reported meeting the 1 September target across five priority areas for cases it categorised as workable stock. It cautioned that this “does not constitute full service recovery”, described overall performance as unacceptable and said too many members still faced uncertainty. The statement’s targets and assessment should be read as a dated update, not as evidence that the later target for cases within KPIs had already been met.

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Why the dispute matters to scheme members

The CSPS had 1.7 million members and £189 billion in liabilities for future pension benefits in the PAC’s snapshot at 31 March 2024, as reported in October 2025. The Committee also reported that 8% of member calls were answered within 30 seconds in January 2025, down from 43% in July 2023. Those call-answering figures describe MyCSP’s service before the transfer, not Capita’s subsequent performance.

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The PAC report also gave the contract value as £239 million for seven years, with an option to extend for three years. These figures help explain the scale of the administration contract and the potential impact of service disruption, but they do not establish the final cost of the transition or the eventual outcome of the NAO’s investigation.

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