Auto-enrolment errors affecting two of the largest providers on the market have been blamed on data inconsistencies.
Some members of Now Pensions and The People’s Pension have been auto-enrolled more than once into different accounts. This has resulted in some workers receiving multiple welcome letters.
Both providers say that all affected members’ contributions have been invested.
Now Pensions said the problem was caused by poor employer data, including incorrect National Insurance numbers and the misspelling of names.
Morten Nilsson (pictured), Now Pensions chief executive, said: “If an employer supplies us with the wrong NI number and they spell a name slightly wrong, and they make someone a man instead of a woman, they will easily become a duplicate member.
“It’s something we are checking up front. We are running systematic checks across our member base and making sure we are surveying how that data looks so we can go back to employers with as many of these data issues as we see. But we do emphasise to our employers that they need to give us the correct data.”
Commenting on the multiple auto-enrolment of members, Darren Philp, director of policy and market engagement at The People’s Pension, said: “In these cases all the contributions for each individual ended up in their sole scheme account, and we have worked with employers to refund any contributions which should not have been paid.”
