Capita Avis 

Track record of incompetence for years. How do they keep getting contracts?
Nine months waiting for a pension.

Currently sat on hold for over an hour on the pension phone line. Keep being told to use the portal, which doesn't work. I can't express how awful I think Capita is. Sadly, they have my pension, so I am stuck with them.

Members Portal contains virtually no useful information. I have not been able to access any information about my pension since it was moved to Capita about 18 months ago. The Chat function contains out of date information and repeatedly cuts me off. No one responds to emails. Customer service is just dreadful

Capita must be the worse company on the planet. Why the government’s contracted out the civil service pensions to this company with such a terrible reputation. Accessing the civil service portal is impossible and accessing pension details The backlog in civil service pension payouts is disgraceful. Very concerning. It is over 9 months and still they have failed to resolve.

Can’t give 0 so have to give 1. Capita keep on asking for documents and proofs of id I have already uploaded. The situation is farcical at best

My mother died in early December 2025. Eight months later I am still trying to get them to send a P45 to HMRC so I can conclude her affairs. My MP has been to several meetings with them. They fail to meet every deadline they commit to. Every phone call, I am told another couple of weeks. I am the executor of her will and this is the only single thing holding everything up. A five minute piece of work, which they can’t be bothered to do. Capita is appalling. And despite all their profit, the likes of you and I will get no compensation for the ordeal they are putting us through.

Like many others here an absolutely appalling handling of my Civil Service Pension by this company.

I applied in June 2025, everything was going really well right up until Capita took over, then it went into a horrible mess.

I live in Canada and spent hours trying to get through to a human, very expensive long distance calls but they couldn't care less.

After a year I finally did start to receive money, but had to write to my MP to embarrass the company into actually doing something.

I still cannot register on their so-called portal. They promised issues would be fixed by 8 December 2025, its now 21 August 2026. Implementing such a workflow is not brain surgery yet Capita can't even manage that. Whenever I call or do live chat with staff all they do is use the same copy/paste phrases ie "we are aware of the issues", "don't have an estimated fix", "keep trying".

Their contact form does not work on their website ie most recently saying "mis-match" errors.

I have only ever received two letters from them but these are sent out via a batch processing company in Sweden which take 2 months to get to me. Post normally takes 10 days from UK to Canada.

So, among the many failures, missed deadlines, lies to parliament, letting down and disrespecting seniors, this company is a complete an utter disgrace.

If I was to suggest a way to improve then the only route I can think of is to move the whole function back in-house with the UK government. This contract should never have been awarded, Capita obviously did nothing during the lead up to going live ie broken links, no portal, didn't understand the policies, staff resigning...DISASTER!

Disgusting company….would rate it zero if I could

Dreadful handling of my civil service pension claim. Won't give all the details but suffice to say I have had no pension or lump sum payment SIX MONTHS after retiring. Three times it has taken over 2 hours to get through to their call handlers who make excuses , give an apology and promise to "escalate" your claim which has absolutely no effect. Capita couldn't run a bath never mind a pension scheme.

I've been trying since last November to register on the CSPS portal. I have spoken to the helpline twice today to be told: -
A) Don't try to register on your work device and
B) (when trying on my personal laptop) nothing of any value whatsoever.
On the plus side....I did get through to an agent fairly quickly on both calls only to receive absolutely bog all in the way of a solution to 'some of my details not matching'.
The FCA and Pensions Regulator seriously need to be investigating as Capita's service is not fit for purpose.
They make South East Water look competent!

Awful Company, no customer service at all. Their helpline staff are just fed scripts by Capita management, those scripts are just lies. Been waiting 12 months for Crapita to pay my civil service pension. They lied and said they emailed a quote to me in April, they didn't. Hundreds were lied to. They continue to lie to thousands of others. 17000 waiting on late quotes. The senior management team should be in a Court! Crapita, setting a new low every day.

Worst company ever, owed pension after my wife passed away, now 10 months, no communication, evasive when I call for update, constantly lie when challenged, regularly say will be paid next week and then nothing happens. I have written to Prime Ministers office, Cabinet office and my MP. Prime Ministers office brush off, not their department, Cabinet office one letter received back basically saying can’t do anything, MP received reply saying wait your turn, she is still trying. Fail to understand after all of their previous failed contracts how the government allowed to take this contract. Meanwhile the shareholders and executives award themselves huge dividends, bonuses and pay rises. If possible have nothing to do with this awful company.
If I could I would award zero stars, but the way this is set up you have to give one as a minimum. Disgusted.t

First contacted in January to say retiring in May. Over 3 months in and not a peep from them. No pension to live on.... Someone needs to do something about this fiasco.

One star because I could not give zero.
Capita took over the Civil.Service Pension Scheme on 1 December. At that point I had already asked for my quote to be corrected. It took more than SIX months for Capita to do that - leaving me without any pension income for 42 weeks - arrears of over £25,000. Meanwhile my living expenses continued and I had to borrow money to pay the bills.

There is a number you can call if you are in hardship but, if you can get through, they merely listen while you cry down the phone. They promise to escalate the case. Nothing changes.

Despite their communications to us and to MPs which talk about a hardship loan scheme, Capita do not in fact provide one. The optics make them sound good but the reality is starkly different.

Capita stop a deceased person's pension under the Tell Us Once scheme but do not pay the widow/widower without requiring a fresh claim a copy of the death certificate and so on and allowing the responses to fester for months in their backlog. People dealing with a bereavement now finding that the pension they relied on, and that their spouse belived they were leaving them with, is not being paid.

I have never come across a company that has so little compassion for their 'customers.'

Although I have now received payment, I still do not have a breakdown or payslips to explain what has been paid. Tax was deducted at 50%!

Their eventual replies to the many complaints I and my MP have made are just stock paragraphs about the things they claim that they are doing to improve the service generally or a repetition of information already given. They do not address the issues on my case - leaving me no further forward.

There is precious little evidence of basic administrative procedures. Vital documents are not even page numbered so folks cannot tell if what they have received was complete. And when they submit the documentation Capita bounce their case back because they have failed to return pages that were never sent.
They even spelt my name wrong on my retirement quote! And they rejected one of my original documents because it was not certified as a copy. Capita made the scan themselves and did not note that they had seen the original. Back down the queue I went once more while I sent more documents. You couldn't make it up!

And even after many months of delays Capita still insist on sending key documents by second class post!

Changes are not made to the portal once payments are in place to enable customers to access the area relating to pensions in payment.

Capita's administrative failings perpetuate the need to contact them for information. Consequently the backlogs and delays seem to be getting worse not better.

I applied for my Civil Service pension in November 2025 and as of August 2026 I have had no meaningful update from them. I have phoned several times and sent secure messages and have only had generic replies that don’t answer my question. Shockingly bad service!

Minus stars unavailable for this disgraceful shower. No accountability, senior staff telling lies to PAC, such as deferred members of CSP can get emergency loans, then not actually giving any out to to anyone who asked. I have waited over 10 months and counting for a reply to an official IDR1 complaint, which they state should be dealt with in 4 months. They paid my pension lump sum 8 months late, my monthly pension was delayed 9 months and when they eventually paid my back pay it caused me ongoing financial difficulties due to being in next FY which mean I paid additional tax on it ( if paid I. Correct tax year I would have paid 20% tax, but have had to pay 40% until the end of the FY when HMRC can then put that right, in the mean time I suffer the consequences of another Capita mess up. Finally the pension to et have paid so far is about £200 per month to low. No reply to any messages on portal, which by the way is a complete waste of time and effort.

Incompetent administration of a pension scheme has left me waiting over 6 months for a first pension payment leading to financial hardship. Communication is almost non-existent; the one letter I received requested I called them (65min wait) just so I could provide a phone number. Call wait time has been 100 minutes to be told no update on my case can be provided. Absolutely abysmal service which should be categorised as maladministration.

Having waited since March 2026 for my retirement quote having worked for 48 years and Capita cannot give a timescale of when I will receive it, if I could give zero stars I would have. So far they have failed to meet three targets which they set themselves. There are currently 17,140 quotes outstanding for so called ordinary retirements , and thousands of bereavement cases on top of this.
It’s truly disgusting!
The fact that the lowest rating we can give is 1 Star and Capita receive 1.1 out of 5, I’m assuming they should only be rated as 0.1 out of 5.

Not fit for purpose in running the Civil Service Pension Fund. Constantly losing paperwork, providing misleading information, breaking promises, horrendous customer service, wrong calculations, missing payments. Their 'member portal' looks like a schoolkid designed it and is completely useless. I've waited months for my pension quote and they've marked my request as resolved with no quote provided or any contact whatsoever. I've heard of members who retired due to terminal illness who have died waiting to be paid. It's a national scandal.

Abysmal service. I notified my intention to retire in May 25. I retired at the end of January 26 and I have heard absolutely nothing. To be fair, the call handlers have been polite, but they do not have access to the system to tell you what the issues are. It is impossible to speak with anyone in the back office and every milestone suggested has passed with deafening silence. No response to complaints either. I have no idea when I will see any money or why cases are not dealt with in chronological order. The government should not have awarded the contract to Capita given their appalling track record. People are suffering as a result of their incompetence.