Capita says it has fixed issues with the new administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme after members reported that technical issues were preventing them from being able to access the portal.
The outsourcing giant formally took over the Cabinet Office contract for the pension scheme on Monday 1 December, launching a new website and portal on the same day.
Members of the scheme have been asked to create a new account to access the portal. However, many have reported being unable to sign in to due to technical errors on the website.
Some have contacted Civil Service World, describing their unsuccessful efforts to gain access to the portal. Some reported going through the 15-minute registration process, only to then be told they have to contact a Capita helpline, which was subsequently unable to help them further at that point. Others reported being able to get into the portal but then finding that the pension information on their account was inaccurate.
A Capita spokesperson said the takeover of the scheme from MyCSP was the “largest-ever on-time transition of a public sector pension scheme in the UK”.
“There were teething problems with the website during the day on Monday 1 December, but we worked quickly with our partners to fix the issues, and we are happy to confirm that by Thursday morning, 28,000 members had succeeded in registering on the site,” the spokesperson said.
They added that registrations “continue to increase rapidly”.
Giving reasons for the issues, the spokesperson said: “Following the blackout of the system last week and the significant backlog inherited from the last provider, we have experienced several times the normal volume of contacts in the first three days of operations.”
Capita also pointed out that it is employing 500 full-time staff to deliver the scheme, an increase of 50% on the previous provider, adding that the firm is “proud” to have been chosen to deliver the scheme, which supports more than 1.5 million current and former civil and public servants.
A letter from Capita to Public Accounts Committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown on the transition, sent on 25 November, says the staffing boost includes a 16% uptick in contact centre staff compared to MyCSP’s service.
In the letter, Capita’s head of public affairs and government relations, Ross Haynes, said that by March 2026, the service “will have evolved significantly, embedding automation and AI to improve accuracy and efficiency, while continuously refining the service based on stakeholder feedback and independent assurance”.
Haynes said Capita has two priorities for the coming months of the service: increased automation of pension calculations along with the adoption of AI to ensure that members and other service users see an improvement to services; and working with employers and members to reduce backlogs and deliver the best possible service to members and departments.
He added that Capita is confident that, “in the coming months, the changes we implement will significantly enhance pension administration services for members”.
Asked by CSW about the concerns raised by members about accessing the portal, a spokesperson for PCS, the civil service's biggest union, said: "We are aware of the issues people are having as there have been lots of complaints from members. PCS officials have urgently taken the issue up with Civil Service Pension Scheme who have advised us that Capita Pensions are taking remedial action through seeking support from Microsoft and deploying additional staff resources."
The Cabinet Office has been approached for comment.