Capita’s troubled Civil Service Pension Scheme hit by data breach

The financial data of just under 140 members of the UK Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) has been exposed following a data breach affecting its online portal, which is overseen by Capita. According to the outsourcer, the issue led to scheme members being able to view personal annual benefit statements (ABSs) that were not their own. Capita pulled the ABS functionality in order to investigate and remediate the issue, and at the time of writing, it remains offline. Computer Weekly understands all affected members of the pension scheme were contacted on 3 April – those who have not received any message at this stage were not impacted and do not need to take any further action. A Capita spokesperson said: “We are aware of an issue that occurred on the CSPS member portal for around 35 minutes on 30 March 2026, affecting the accuracy of a small number of Annual Benefit Statements (ABS) generated in this period. “This was identified quickly, ABS functionality was immediately suspended, and a full investigation undertaken. We sincerely apologise for this issue and any concerns you may have. We take the protection of members’ personal data extremely seriously,” they said. A Cabinet Office spokesperson added: “"We are aware of the incident and take the issue extremely seriously. “While only a very small number of members were affected, we are working with Capita to establish the facts and ensure appropriate measures are taken. We will consider further action as required,” they said. Dominic Hook, national officer at the Unite union, said: “Once again, Capita has proved itself to be totally unfit to manage the pensions of millions of public sector workers. “This latest in a litany of extremely serious failures by Capita shows why the government’s manifesto promise to reverse outsourcing is more important than ever....