Union warnings about outsourcing giant go unheeded as errors mount up
Unite, the UK’s leading union which represents large number of civil servants, has highlighted the continued issues with Capita's running of the one of the country's largest pension schemes.
Outsourcing giant Capita took over running the entire civil service pension scheme in December 2025. It had previously run the pensions for the MoD Fire and Rescue Service whose staff are Unite members. Unite had previously issued stark warnings directly to the Cabinet Office about Capita's incompetence and highlighted its poor performance, but had reassurances that this contract was different to Capita's other contracts.
But Unite is aware of a significant and serious number of recent and ongoing issues with Capita's running of the fire and rescue service scheme. These include:
  • A member missing £2,000 from their annual pension and £6,000 from their lump sum due to miscalculations of rest day credits
  • A member having their pension reduced by £500 due to errors in amalgamating two civil service pensions - classic and alpha
  • A member who has been receiving a lower pension than he should have been for nearly a year despite Capita acknowledging its miscalculation due to periods of temporary promotion
  • Two members whose pension offer did not include the effective pension age reduction for firefighters resulting in a significantly reduced lump sum payment
  • A member who is losing £2,000 per year as Capita has been unable to add service with HM Coastguard and MoD Guard Service to his MoD pension.
Since 2019, firefighters' pensions have been incorrectly calculated and, in some cases, firefighter members have been retiring or sadly dying in service and Capita has no record of their pensions or next of kin beneficiaries.
In many cases this has taken over six months to resolve and the member (or their next of kin) have been without pension income for this period. Without direct interventions by Unite, these members would have been without their pension for the entire time.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Capita's running of civil service pensions goes from chaos to calamity. That a company who has shown repeatedly that it is incapable of running the pension scheme for 700 firefighters has been given the keys to the entire civil service scheme beggars belief.
 
“Unite will continue to highlight Capita’s incompetence and pressure ministers to bring this service back in house at the earliest opportunity."
Unite reported Capita to the Information Commissioner in 2023 following a Cyber Attack / Data Breach on members’ pension information. Subsequently Capita was fined £14 Million in October 2025.
Despite this, the Cabinet Office awarded the Contract to Capita on 1 December 2025. Unite has seen first-hand and read further media reports that this transition failed on day one with the pensions’ portal system crashing leaving pension scheme members unable to access their pension information.
Unite is calling on the government to provide a clearer understanding of the resourcing that Capita is committing to clearing the pensions payment backlog and, as a consequence, a firm estimate as to how long both the Cabinet Office and Capita now envisage the backlog will take to clear.
Unite national officer Matt Jones said: "Capita must be given an unequivocal deadline for clearing the backlog, in order to ensure that, as quickly as possible, the service can attain the level of improvement unions have been assured that we can expect from the new provider. 
 
"Capita has a history of this sort of poor performance and Unite is already providing extensive support to a number of retired members unable to access their pensions or lump sums due to Capita's inability. This is simply not good enough."