Capita Scores £239M Contract To Manage Mega Public Sector Pension Scheme

Capita has scooped up a ten-year £239 million ($298 million) contract to oversee the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) on behalf of Britain's Cabinet Office, giving the under-fire tech services biz a needed boost.

The CSPS is among the UK’s largest public sector pension schemes, and is clearly comfortable with Capita’s handling of a major security breach in March that saw customer information, including pension data, exfiltrated by criminals.

In a contract award notice to the London Stock Exchange, Capita confirmed the Cabinet Office contract begins from September 2025. The role the company plays is to include modernizing pension admin systems.

This apparently will be done through “enhanced system design and digital innovation,” according to Capita.

Not content, the outsourcer is also threatening to integrate generative AI to give pension holders personalized and “engaging digital channels” to prepare for and manage their retirement.

Capita said in a statement:

“Enhancing the end-to-end customer experience will create more intuitive and innovative interactions for both our client and pension members, while providing the insights to support a data driven approach for employers within the scheme.”

In addition, Capita will be in charge of pensions payroll admim services related to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme and the Civil Service Injury Benefit Scheme, as well as related finance and accounting services.

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All this is a validation of Capita by UK government following the embarrassing digital burglary the company suffered in late March. Capita discovered a person or persons had broken into its infrastructure so it shut down some systems. The exact route of entry has yet to be detailed by the company.

Ransomware gang Black Basta claimed responsibility, and purported to leak some information including bank account information, addresses and passport photos. Capita initially said 4 percent of its servers were accessed but after part of an investigation downgraded this to 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, pension data was believed to be held on those servers.

The UK’s Pensions Regulator was notified and advised clients to communicate with Capita directly about any risks, perceived or otherwise. And Britain’s largest pension scheme, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), also informed members their data might have been exposed to the criminals behind the breach.

USS said in May that Capita could not be certain pension data had been stolen but said it was advised by the company that it should work on the assumption it had.

Some 90 organizations have informed the Information Commissioner’s Office that their data was caught up in the breach.

The cost of cleaning the breach was estimated by Capita earlier in the summer to be near to £25 million ($31 million).

Capita already administers 450 pension schemes in Britain with 4.3 million members. ®