Capita pension backlog leaves widows 'in tears'

People waiting for civil service pensions have described feeling upset, frustrated and ignored as a growing backlog leaves some without payments for months.

Anne Sinclaire, from Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire, has been waiting six months for her widow's pension from GCHQ in Cheltenham after her husband Brian died in March.

"It makes me so angry," she said. "To cut funds off entirely from people going through bereavement is cruel."

Capita, which took over administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme in December 2025, said it recognised "the service has not been good enough".

Anne and Brian were married for 36 years. Following his death, she became entitled to a widow's pension.

When he died she said she was told the full pension would continue to be paid for three months while paperwork was processed.

Believing she would soon start receiving her widow's pension, Anne used the money to cover major costs including building work, household bills and funeral expenses.

"I paid off the funeral which was £7,000, the memorial stone which was £800, thinking I was going to get some income."

The delay has forced her to put off paying her credit card bills, leading to higher interest charges.

"[Brian] worked so hard and he did so much and he was very loyal to his country," she added.

After the BBC contacted Capita about her case, Anne received a lump-sum payment into her bank account. However, she said she has not received anything in writing explaining what she is owed.

Avril Coleman, from the Forest of Dean, spent her entire career working for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

She retired in May, after giving five months' notice but says she is still waiting to receive her pension. She contacts the company at least twice a month for updates.

"They have got telephone agents, taking all the calls and they're just following scripts and if you ask a question that isn't on their script they can't answer," she said.

Avril is a member of a civil service pension support group where other people are experiencing similar problems.

The situation has been particularly difficult because Avril's husband died earlier this year.

She recalled one interaction with a call handler, saying: "Her words were to me 'you're not bereaved' and I cried then, because I've been with my husband for over 40 years and it was an insult."

Avril said she understood the adviser meant she was not eligible for a widow's pension, but felt staff should "be more careful" with their words.

Sandy Blindell, from Gloucester, was married to Eric, who died in July 2025.

After serving in the Royal Navy, Eric worked at GCHQ for 12 years.

Sandy said her husband would be "fuming" if he knew how difficult the process had been.

"He'd be absolutely furious. He wrote everything down, what I've got to do and who I've got to contact and I did exactly what he told me to do," she said.

"It was just as though they weren't bothered, I was just another one."

In an effort to speed up the process, she contacted her MP, Alex McIntyre.

He described the delays as "simply not acceptable".

"The last thing that you need is to be getting a really poor service from Capita who aren't providing the payments you're entitled to," the Gloucester MP said.

Sandy received a lump-sum payment last month but says she has still not received any communication from Capita.

Capita took over administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme, which has about 1.7 million members, in December 2025 under a £239m contract signed by the previous Conservative government.

Capita said it had inherited a backlog of more than 86,000 but by early February, that backlog had risen to over 120,000 cases.

In response, the UK government introduced a recovery plan in February.

The measures included deploying 150 civil servants and 100 additional Capita staff to help clear the backlog and prioritise urgent cases. An emergency interest-free loan scheme was also introduced.

Conservative MP for the North Cotswolds, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, asked Capita to appear in front of the Public Accounts Committee, which he chairs.

"We were given repeated deadlines that were missed," Clifton-Brown said.

"It was going to be done February then it was going to be done in April. It's just not on."

The cabinet office described the service as "completely unacceptable" with the immediate priority being to "stabilise the service".

But long term the government say plans to bring the pension scheme in house are being worked up.

"The government intends to move forward the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation and is actively shaping a long-term strategy to bring this pension scheme back in-house."

In a statement Capita said: "Focus remains on working through outstanding cases.

"Despite the progress made, we recognise the service has not been good enough. We are sorry for the impact this has had."

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