From Angela MacDonald, Second Permanent Secretary
23 April 2026
I have been leading the taskforce for three months, and I’d like to thank you for your enduring patience. We are now at a critical stage of the recovery period as there are many challenges on a number of fronts. Whilst thousands of colleagues have had lump sum payments paid and pensions put into payment, many more thousands are still waiting. Confusing information doesn’t help and there have been a number of recent issues that have understandably knocked peoples’ confidence. I receive emails daily from colleagues whose lived experience does not match the recovery details that I give in these updates. I acknowledge that with so many varied situations and individual circumstances in the outstanding workload, it is difficult to succinctly communicate in a way that is right for everyone. We will work harder to be more specific where there are caveats to the information provided.
In this update, I’d like to focus on some of the areas where it’s clear that there are gaps and potential for misinterpretation, starting with Capita’s commitment to write to members by 10 April.
I previously said that everyone who had submitted a request for a quote before 1 December 2025 would be contacted by 10 April. Whilst this is what I agreed with Capita, unfortunately, this is not what happened. What should have been relayed to me - and to members was: By 10 April, Capita would contact those who submitted a quote before 1 December 2025, had a last day of service before 1 December 2025, and needed to clarify some retirement information. For members with retirement dates after 1 December, it has been assumed (by Capita) that you still wish to proceed and remain in the work queue. This lack of clarity has led to much confusion and caused further upset for members who are increasingly frustrated.
Turning to the commitment to put remaining pensions into payment for members (where completed paperwork had been submitted to MyCSP and then transferred to Capita). Capita inherited 8,063 cases on 1 December 2025. All those eligible for lump sum payments have been paid, and the target is to put the outstanding pensions into payment by the end of April alongside any arrears. Pensions are paid monthly on different dates depending on your retirement date. Therefore, the processing of outstanding pensions means that when the work is completed, you enter into the next payment cycle. As an example, if your retirement date is set up to be 15th of the month and the processing is completed by the end of April, then you will receive your first pension payment on 15 May and the 15th of the month thereafter. If your retirement date is set up to be the 27th and the processing is completed by the end of April, then your first pension payment will be 27 May etc. Finalisation letters will be sent to all members to confirm the pension payable amount and date of payment. Interest on late payments will be payable by Capita at a later date (please see here for further details on this).
The key issue for many members now is quotations. There are currently over 23,000 pension quotations in the queue and the plan is to process these by the end of June. By processing, I mean ensure Capita has the correct employer data and your pension record is accurate so a quotation is issued. This does not mean that all those cases will be in payment by the end of June. As an example, if you asked to retire in February 2026 and receive your quotation at the end of May 2026, take some time to review your options and return the paperwork in June, Capita will process the retirement into payment in July and then, as set out above, the payments go into the relevant part of the payment cycle. Thus likely that you should expect to receive your payments in August 2026, including back payments of your monthly pension from February to August 2026. I covered timescales and overall quote management in update #3 on 12 March, so please read the Q&A section there for further information.
To get through those 23,000 quotes in 8 weeks, Capita will be processing them in batches. In some instances further data may be required from current or previous employers so, whilst quotes are processed in date order, some batches may be able to move faster than others i.e. if Capita has all the information it needs to process a quote. We are already working with all employers to manage this flow of information as smoothly and efficiently as possible. This approach may mean that it is possible that Capita won't be issuing quotes in strict retirement date order and you may have a colleague who gets their quote before you do. Please do not be concerned about that. Capita will be accelerating the pace with which the quotes are worked through so everyone’s quote will be processed. We are very focused on the end of June commitment.
Transitional loan payments of £5,000 or £10,000 are still being offered by organisations to active members who require an interim payment, speak to your HR department if this applies to you. If you have already received the maximum amount of £10,000, please ask your department to escalate your case on your behalf with Capita.
In my last update, I also informed you of Capita’s data breach. Capita has contacted 138 affected members (and the employers of those impacted) to inform them of the situation. I know that this issue has been of understandable alarm with some members ringing Capita to check if they have been impacted. If you have not been contacted by Capita already, then you are definitely not impacted. Please do not call the contact centre asking if your data has been breached. The root cause is being investigated with assurances sought that this does not happen again.
Finally, the position of the contact centre deteriorated in the last week. The knock-on effects of the data breach, removal of 2024/25 Annual Benefit Statements from the portal, 2026 pensioner mailing and end of tax year queries means that waiting times to the contact centre have increased, peaking at 47 minutes in mid-April. This is regrettable considering call waiting times were improving. Whilst Capita is mobilising further resource, unless your enquiry is urgent, I request that you do not call the contact centre to escalate your case.
We know that all cases are urgent and we need to maximise the resources working on the cases. As many of you experience when speaking to the contact centre, they are unable to make any commitments as to when processing will happen and are only able to take your escalation. This is very frustrating for you and does not in reality make the caseload shift faster given the volume of escalations now held.
Capita has committed to restore service levels to agreed contractual levels by the end of June. Please be assured that Capita will be held to account to ensure members get the service they deserve. I thank you for your valuable feedback, continued interest and tolerance.
Angela MacDonald
Second Permanent Secretary, HMRC
