Civil Service Pension Scheme
Thursday, 10 September 2026
Contributions
Darren Paffey (Southampton Itchen) (Lab)Labour
7. What recent steps her Department has taken to tackle issues impacting the civil service pension scheme.
Mr Alex Barros-Curtis (Cardiff West) (Lab)Labour
15. What recent steps her Department has taken to tackle issues impacting the civil service pension scheme.
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Sally Jameson)Labour (Co-op)
Current service levels are completely unacceptable, and we are holding Capita accountable by withholding payments in the short term and assessing the long-term viability of bringing the scheme in-house. We will continue to use the most stringent commercial levers we have under this contract—which was signed by the last Government—to ensure we have full accountability.
I welcome my hon. Friend to her place, and thank her for her answer. In Southampton Itchen, I have constituents who have been deprived of their pension for many months. One waited over a year even for an accurate quotation, another is yet to receive a penny after 40 years of service, and one with stage 4 cancer took three months to get any money—and even then, only after I had nagged a Minister to intervene. When I was a Southampton city councillor, we ended Capita’s contract and took those services back in-house. Is it not time for the Government to consider doing the same?
I thank my hon. Friend for raising his constituents’ cases. I have had many similar cases in Doncaster. I assure him and his constituents that I am using all the levers at my disposal to ensure that Capita delivers a better performance at the earliest possible time. We have set out our intention to advance the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation, and we are now actively shaping a long-term strategy to look at what it would look like if we brought the pension scheme back in-house. He will be aware of our manifesto commitment to have the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation, and I am committed to fulfilling that.
I join my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton Itchen (Darren Paffey) in warmly welcoming the Minister to her new position. In surgery after surgery, I too have examples of Capita failing to do its job. The latest example was in a surgery just the other week, where I met my constituent Craig, who has received no pension payment or calculation since July. Will the Minister please look into Craig’s case and do everything she can to give Capita the boot?
Capita’s performance has been totally abysmal, and I too have raised it a number of times in this House. I can assure my hon. Friend that we will be holding Capita to account, including withholding nearly £10 million of contractual payments, because we will not pay for services that have not been delivered. If my hon. Friend writes to me, I will ensure that his case is investigated, and I will get back to him at the earliest possible opportunity.
Mr Gagan Mohindra (South West Hertfordshire) (Con)Conservative
Despite dedicating their lives to public service through long careers in the civil service, many of my constituents have faced severe delays with their pension payments, causing them anxiety and financial hardship. How will the Minister ensure that her Department gives my constituents the support they need, that this crisis is resolved and, just as importantly, that it does not happen again?
An independent, Capita-funded remedial adviser has been appointed to identify service delivery issues and to allow us to continue to hold Capita fully accountable. Around 147 surge staff have been deployed in this crisis. The Government remain committed to maintaining resource levels. No team members will be withdrawn from that surge team until service levels are permanently fixed. As I have said in my previous answers, we are using all commercial levers at our disposal, including withholding those payments, so that Capita is held accountable. We are looking closely at options for bringing the pension scheme in-house.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)Green Party
Numerous constituents of mine have had the same problems with the civil service pension scheme run by Capita. One example is Ruth, whose husband worked for the Ministry of Defence and died in service nearly a year ago. She has been waiting 11 months for a death-in-service payment and pension. Capita promised to have this resolved, with all bereavement cases done by the end of August. It broke that promise. This week, she is still waiting. This is utterly unacceptable. I welcome the Minister saying that there will be penalties for Capita, but does she not recognise that this is such a clear example that outsourcing does not work? Will she ensure that Capita is not given contracts like this ever again?
I thank the hon. Member for raising her constituent’s experience, which I am sorry to hear about. I have many similar examples in my constituency, as I know have Members across the House. I hope to provide a more substantive update in October. As I have said previously, Capita’s performance is totally unacceptable. I will not defend it, and I will continue to hold Capita to account every single day that I am in office, until the service levels are brought back up to an acceptable standard and all our constituents have received the pensions that they should already have had—in the hon. Member’s constituency case, 11 months ago—and I will continue to do that. We are looking at bringing the pension scheme in-house, and we are looking at the different viable options to do that. In our manifesto we committed to the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation, and we are all committed to doing that.
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5404651.