Belgium's Pensions Ombudsman has urged the government to introduce a legal 'right to make a mistake' framework to allow citizens acting in good faith to correct errors after a pension dispute highlighted the risks of relying on artificial intelligence (AI) for pension information.

The call follows a complaint from a retiree who missed out on a month's early retirement pension after failing to submit an online pension application.

Believing he had completed the process, the individual later turned to an AI tool, which incorrectly told him that the missed payment could be claimed retrospectively for up to one year.

However, the Federal Pension Service told the retiree that, under Belgian law, an early retirement pension can only begin from the month following the submission of an application, meaning the missed month's payment could not be recovered.

Investigating the complaint, the Pensions Ombudsman confirmed that the pension authority had applied the law correctly but found the AI-generated response was based on Dutch, rather than Belgian, pension legislation.

“The Ombudsman concluded that when questions are asked using AI tools without clearly defining the scope of the query, the answers are often inaccurate.

“For example, users should specify that the question concerns a Belgian pension rather than a Dutch one and identify the relevant pension scheme, such as employees, self-employed workers, police or education,” the Ombudsman stated.

In this case, the Ombudsman advised the retiree that the official websites of the pension authorities are the appropriate source for reliable and accurate pension information and sought to restore the individual's confidence in the pension service.

However, it was unable to intervene because Belgian pension legislation does not currently recognise a 'right to make a mistake'.

Therefore, it has joined the country's other ombudsmen in recommending the creation of a legal framework that would allow citizens acting in good faith to correct genuine errors within a reasonable period.

“Such a framework would allow citizens who have acted in good faith but made an error to correct it within a reasonable period. According to the Ombudsman, such legislation would send a strong signal that the Belgian government supports a society based on trust and cooperation,” it stated.

This follows on from the Ombudsman’s 2025 Annual Report, published in March, which identified the use of AI by future pensioners as a “new development” behind a number of complaints in 2025.

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