A new retirement modeller for members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme has been delayed.
The modeller, to help members of the scheme plan for their future by exploring different retirement scenarios and understanding how their benefits could change depending on the age they retire, was due to go live on the portal by 31 March.
HMRC second permanent secretary Angela MacDonald, who is leading the scheme’s recovery taskforce, said in an update on the team’s work on Tuesday that the delay is due to "functionality issues”.
She said the modeller should be able to show pension estimates for all members using different scenarios, pulling through accurate data, “and only when it’s been rigorously tested will it be live”.
“I know this is disappointing news,” she added.
This comes after Capita confirmed there had been a data breach last week affecting 138 members of the scheme.
On the breach, MacDonald said: “I understand that this incident in addition to the existing service issues will be a cause of significant concern, but be assured that corrective action is being taken.”
MacDonald said the taskforce’s focus is to restore service levels by the end of June and it “continues to make slow progress but there remains a lot to do”.
In an update on pension quotations, she said the taskforce is on target to have written to those who requested a pension quotation before 1 December 2025 by Friday 10 April. Those registered on the member portal will be contacted via the portal or by post if they do not have a portal account.
MacDonald noted that Capita needs to check if people still want to retire, if their circumstances remain unchanged, and gather any further information they may require to progress quotes.
She added that “if Capita does not hear from you within two months, your case will be closed and you will need to make a new request if you need a quote, so please respond as quickly as possible”.
MacDonald said the delivery of full retirement and partial retirement quotes is still focused on pre-1 December requests with only limited activity on quote requests made since the 1 December transition from MyCSP to Capita.
She said there will need to be a “significant acceleration of quote delivery to achieve the end of June target and we expect that to happen in May and June”.
“I recognise this is frustrating and we are doing significant work to enable these deadlines to be hit,” she added.
MacDonald said pensions in payment “remain stable” and the scheme is distributing the 2026 Pension Increase mailing which includes pensioner payslips and P60s to approximately 730,000 pensioners.
She also noted that pensioner members are being encouraged to make their digital or paper preferences known to Capita as the scheme moves to digital P60s and payslips in 2027.
On customer service performance, MacDonald said call volumes increased at the end of March, impacting wait times, but that the average remains below 10 minutes. She said additional surge resources will be retained as the overall service “transitions to a position of long-term stability”.