The government’s pensions dashboards programme is to be further delayed, with no details on when the flagship initiative will be ready.
Dashboards aim to allow people to view information about their pensions, including state pensions, in one place online. Under Financial Conduct Authority rules, large pensions providers had to connect to pensions dashboards by the end of this August. Money purchase schemes used for automatic enrolment must connect from the end of September, followed by non-money purchase schemes from the end of November. Public service pension schemes will be expected to connect by the end of September 2024.
However, work and pensions minister Laura Trott has announced a “reset”, as the project requires “the development of new technology that will permit individuals to find their pensions by searching thousands of pension schemes which collectively hold millions of pensions records”.
She added: “More time is needed to deliver this complex build and for the pensions industry to help facilitate the successful connection of a wide range of different IT systems to the dashboard’s digital architecture.” The government will “legislate at the earliest opportunity” to amend the programme’s timing.
LCP partner and former pensions minister Steve Webb said the government must ensure any delay “is kept to an absolute minimum”, adding that “the lack of a firm new timetable will leave industry in limbo and this uncertainty must be resolved as soon as possible”.
Aegon head of pensions Kate Smith said: “We are disappointed about the reset, which in reality likely means an implementation delay, but we recognise that it’s really important that everything is in place before schemes connect to the dashboard ecosystem and definitely before the public accesses dashboards.”
The then chancellor George Osborne first announced pensions dashboards in his 2016 Budget, with a pledge to have them in place by 2019.
