Capita - which employs hundreds of staff at Lingfield Point in Darlington - has lost the multi-million pound contract to administer teachers' pension after more than 20 years.

There will now be concerns about the number of staff needed at Lingfield Point with such a key contract being taken away from 2025. Capita moved to to its current offices in 2015, when it was employing 450 staff. It is not know how many of them were dedicated to the teachers' contract.

At the time the move was seen as pivotal for the wider Lingfield Point site, stablising it as an investment option for other businesses.

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Capita's final extension to the contract was for four years - taking it to October 2025. It was believed to be worth around £15m a year.

Tata Consultancy Services announced this morning that it would be the new operator, having been selected by the Department for Education to 'administer and enhance' customer experiences for the Teachers’ Pension Scheme in England and Wales.

TCS said as part of the new deal it would be setting up a new service hub in Darlington.

The Teachers’ Pension Scheme is the second largest public sector pension scheme in the UK with over two million members. TCS has been awarded a 10-year contract to manage the scheme administration services including pension records, payment of benefits, finance management, member engagement and information access.

TCS will deliver a digital-first, self-service pension experience, giving scheme employers and members any-time, any-channel access to their account information, along with personalized insights to help them understand their pension plan better and empower them to make informed decisions.

TCS is the largest provider of software and IT services in the UK, with a large and diverse workforce spread across 30 locations.

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Vivekanand Ramgopal, President of BFSI Products & Platforms at TCS said: "We are delighted to partner with the Department for Education to digitally transform administration of the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme and deliver the best-administered UK public sector pensions scheme.

"We will continue to strategically invest in our platform and pursue our aspiration to be the preferred growth and transformation partner to life and pensions companies in the UK.”

TCS BFSI Products and Platforms is an end-to-end digital 'ecosystem' that powers the journeys of life, pensions/annuities, property/casualty and health insurance providers.