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Consumer groups and providers have expressed disappointment at the UK government’s decision to further delay the pension dashboard, four years after the service was first set to be launched.
Pensions minister Laura Trott announced on Thursday that the government would undertake a “reset of the pension dashboards programme (PDP)”. She said the project had been a complex undertaking and a new chair would soon be appointed to develop a delivery plan.
Ever since plans for a secure online dashboard were first set out in 2016, offering individuals access to data on their state, workplace and personal pensions in one place, the scheme has been hit by delays in collecting data from pension providers.
“The average person is set to build up an average of 11 different pension pots in their lifetime,” said Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at Which? “The government must commit resources to getting pensions dashboards back on track and set a clear timeline for implementation.”
The latest postponement is a setback for savers looking to keep track of disparate pensions, as increasingly frequent job changes have left people with more pots to manage.
Regulators last November extended the deadline for providers to comply with the new rules to August 31, with the Financial Conduct Authority stating there was a lack of third-party providers able to link data to the dashboard. Deadlines had previously been pushed back by several years in 2020.
About 40 per cent of Britons hold two or more private pensions, according to the PDP. Polling published last October found that less than a third of people had engaged with their pension provider in the past year, while only a quarter had read their annual statement.
Provider Aviva said that it was disappointed with the delay, but cautioned that it was “vital that the foundations upon which the dashboards ecosystem is built are safe, secure, and works for both the pensions industry and individuals searching for their pensions”.
Changes to the delivery plan will not affect the underlying framework for the dashboard, though the Department of Work and Pensions will legislate to change connection deadlines. Further updates are expected before the end of July.
Caroline Siarkiewicz, chief executive of the Money and Pensions Service, which oversees the PDP, said: “Today’s announcement affords us the opportunity to replan the work of PDP, collaborating closely with industry partners on the way forward.”
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