The Pension Funds Adjudicator received a record 13,041 complaints in 2025/26, 26% more than the 10,331 a year earlier, its Integrated Report 2025/26 shows.
The number is the highest since the office was established. The previous record was 11,399 in 2018/19. The adjudicator’s report put the 10-year average at 9,411 complaints a year, which makes the latest figure 39% higher.
The adjudicator gave three reasons for the rise: the two-pot retirement system, its own efforts to reach more people, and weak economic conditions. In the report it said the two-pot system, “coupled with weak economic conditions”, had a deep impact on the retirement industry. In accessing their benefits, it said, members exposed problems in the industry, including arrear contributions, delayed or unpaid withdrawal benefits and inaccurate member records.
Of the complaints the office closed, 61.48% were about employers who did not pay over the contributions they deducted from workers’ pay, a breach of section 13A of the Pension Funds Act. Another 22.93% were about withdrawal benefits. Together the two categories made up 84% of closed complaints. The office said they often overlap, because a member may discover that an employer has not paid only when they apply to withdraw.
The office finalised 11,047 complaints, up from 10,100, and issued 6,372 formal determinations, up from 5,434. Relief was granted in 5,635 of them and 737 were dismissed. Another 1,386 complaints were settled, 1,630 fell outside its jurisdiction and 1,659 were abandoned, withdrawn or duplicates. It said the orders it made sounding in money added up to R99,761,817, a figure the report prints with the word “million” after it.
Source: Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator, Integrated Report 2025/26. Chart: Rand Desk
Most complaints came electronically. Email and the website accounted for 70% (9,172), and walk-ins for 27% (3,534). The office said walk-ins show that digital literacy and connectivity problems still keep some people offline, and it plans partnerships and mobile offices outside Gauteng. Gauteng produced 5,941 complaints, or 45.6% of the total, followed by Mpumalanga with 1,361 and the Western Cape with 1,175.
Muvhango Lukhaimane left the post in January 2026 after twelve years, and Lebogang Mogashoa is now the Pension Funds Adjudicator.
The Financial Services Tribunal received 104 applications to reconsider the office’s determinations. It dismissed 63 and sent 25 back to the office, 8 because of new facts and 17 on the same facts.
The report also faults funds. The office said some had no effective system to detect unpaid contributions and so failed to act against delinquent employers, which leaves members to chase the money themselves, contrary to FSCA Conduct Standard 1 of 2022. It said stakeholders are constantly urged to resolve complaints before they reach the adjudicator, and it called the volume of complaints and their repeat causes a great concern.
Unpaid contributions are a problem in the public sector too. Our personal finance desk covered nineteen municipalities that owe R1.79bn in unpaid pension contributions. The two-pot retirement system is the first cause the adjudicator named for the rise in complaints.
