Widows ‘left waiting months’ for pensions after Capita takeover

Capita took over administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme, which has about 1.7 million members, in December 2025 under a £239m contract signed by the previous Conservative government.

Capita said it had inherited a backlog of more than 86,000 but by early February, that backlog had risen to over 120,000 cases.

In response, the UK government introduced a recovery plan in February.

The measures included deploying 150 civil servants and 100 additional Capita staff to help clear the backlog and prioritise urgent cases. An emergency interest-free loan scheme was also introduced.

Conservative MP for the North Cotswolds, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, asked Capita to appear in front of the Public Accounts Committee, which he chairs.

“We were given repeated deadlines that were missed,” Clifton-Brown said.

“It was going to be done February then it was going to be done in April. It’s just not on.”

The cabinet office described the service as “completely unacceptable” with the immediate priority being to “stabilise the service”.

But long term the government say plans to bring the pension scheme in house are being worked up.

“The government intends to move forward the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation and is actively shaping a long-term strategy to bring this pension scheme back in-house.”

In a statement Capita said: “Focus remains on working through outstanding cases.

“Despite the progress made, we recognise the service has not been good enough. We are sorry for the impact this has had.”