Guide to Registering for the Pension Portal

To create your Pension Portal account, you will need:

1. Your date of birth
2. Your National Insurance number
3. A mobile phone, and either:
4. The name of your current employer (if you're still working in the Civil Service), the year you retired (if you're a pensioner member) OR the year you left the scheme (if you're a deferred member).

Please note: If you don't have access to a mobile phone, you will not be able to register.

Go to the Pension Portal registration page and enter your details. 

Enter your date of birth as DD/MM/YYYY. For example, if you were born on 7 June 1960, you should put 07/06/1960.

Type your employer's name into the field and it will show you options based on what you've typed. 

National Insurance number isn't accepted?

• Make sure it's in the right format, for example AB123456C. If it still doesn't work, you may already be registered. Return to the login page and log into your account.
• Alternatively, you may have already registered in the past. Go back to the portal home page and select login to access your account.

Can't find your employer?

Make sure you're searching for your employer's full title. If that doesn't work, try any associated acronyms, for example HMRC instead of HM Revenue & Customs. 

If you've recently changed jobs and/or employers and your new employer isn't recognised, it may be that we haven't received updated information for your records just yet. In this case, try entering the name of your previous employer.

Retired or left the scheme?

Enter the year you retired if you're a pensioner member, or the year you left the scheme if you're a deferred member.

Try to make these memorable, as you will need them every time you log into the Pension Portal.

1. Create a username
Your username must be unique. It can't be an email address and must:

• contain between 5 and 32 characters
• contain no spaces
• contain no special characters (anything on a keyboard that is not a number or a letter)

2. Create a password
Your password must include: 

• At least 8 characters
• contain at least 1 uppercase character (A-Z)
• contain at least 1 lowercase character (a-z)
• contain at least 1 number (0-9)
• contain at least 1 of these special characters: . * [ ] ( ) @ # $ % ^ & + =  

Enter the email address you’d like us to send your account activation code to. You can amend your personal details in the future using the ‘Your Account’ section of the ‘Your Pension Benefits Dashboard’, once you've registered for the Pension Portal.

• We recommend using a personal email account in case you move organisation or leave the Civil Service.
• GSI email addresses cannot be used.

We'll send a six-digit verification code to the email address you entered in Step 4. You should receive this within two or three minutes. Once you receive the email, enter the verification code when prompted on the "Create your account" screen. 

Emails about the Pension Portal come from mssmail@mycsp.co.uk. This is an automated email and is not monitored. 

If you don't receive your activation email:
1. Check your junk mail/spam folder
2. Select 'allow sender' or mark emails from that address as 'not junk'

Secure your account by using a device you own (for example, a mobile phone) to set up a second level of security. We'll send a code to that device that you enter to access your account.

You can choose to either:

• Receive an SMS (text) message with an access code to your phone number, or
• Use an authenticator app (that you've previously installed) on a trusted mobile device to generate an access code

Please note: If you don't have access to a mobile phone, you will not be able to register.

SMS (text) message
Enter the phone number you'd like us to send the text message to (including your country code - for example, +44 for the UK) and click 'Send code'. It will be from ‘CSPS Portal’ and should come through within a few minutes. When you receive it, enter the code and click 'Submit'. 

If you don't receive a text message, click on the 'Didn't receive a message? Send again' link.

Authenticator app
Open your already-installed authentication app and scan the QR code that appears on the screen. A six-digit code should then appear in your app. When you have it, enter it and click 'Submit'. 

These will help you sign into your account if you lose access to your authentication device, so make sure to store them somewhere safe and accessible. You can only use each code once.

Your recovery codes are also stored in your portal account. You can find them under More > Your account > Two Factor Authentication. Here, you can view and/or regenerate them as needed.