Integration platform Pensionsync, which recently appointed former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann as chairwoman, had analysed data on contributions to more than 10,000 schemes between August 2017 and July 2018 and found 50 per cent had to be sent back for correction.
Ms Altmann cited common errors, including contribution amounts that are too high or too low, payments made for workers who do not belong to the scheme or have opted out, or incorrect pay period dates.
She says: "The really scary thing for me is that, since working with Pensionsync, it has become obvious to me the administration of pensions is still not working properly.
"There are hardly any safeguards in place to be sure that auto-enrolment pension contributions are actually correct. And the error rate for the contributions, often uploaded manually onto spreadsheets and sent to pension providers with errors, is high."
Ms Altmann warns if these records are wrong right at the start, then "we could be building up to the same problems again in 20 or 30 years' time, when people find the amount paid in for them was not correct, and then have to try to sort out the mess, rather than having strong safeguards in place now to ensure problems do not arise in the first place".
Technological advances
For Ms Altmann, making the most of technological advances to ensure proper audit trails and "robust checks" is essential.
She explains: "With automated integrated connections between the administrator and the pension provider, with robust checks to ensure contributions are actually correct, there is much less chance of manual errors, and there can be robust checking to ensure accuracy."
Ms Ingram agrees, and highlights the incoming pensions dashboard - which after much controversy this year is expected to be put in place, in some form, during 2019 - as a good example of how technology can be used to prevent future 'surprise' clawback attacks.
She says: "The pensions dashboard is designed to require all schemes to provide a digitalised record of an individual's pension from all sources, and for this to be updated regularly.
"Implementation of the dashboard would incentivise schemes to improve record keeping and would enable members to be better informed well before retirement."
Advice well ahead of retirement
Again, having a quality financial adviser helping people in the run-up to retirement will prove invaluable, whether the person has a defined benefit or defined contribution or personal pension pot.
