- Pensions minister Laura Trott has announced the timetable for pensions dashboards will be delayed, and ‘reset’ in the summer.
- The DWP has been leading a project to develop pensions dashboards, which will offer people a holistic view of all their pensions savings in one place.
- The pensions dashboard programme had been leading the development and testing of the dashboard ecosystem. However, the DWP has initiated a reset of the Pensions Dashboards Programme.
- A new Chair of the Programme Board will develop a fresh plan for delivery.
- Pension schemes were due to start connecting to Dashboards from 31 August 2023. The Dashboard Available Point (DAP) – the day when dashboards are to be available to the public - was expected to be late next year.
Rachel Vahey, AJ Bell head of policy development, comments:
“The DWP has torn up the plans for pensions dashboards and has decided to start again. After years of work across the industry and multiple government bodies, this a staggering development and means Dashboards are now at risk of being mothballed until the next Parliament, and may never become a reality at all.
“For the industry this is frustrating, with countless hours of careful work put into developing dashboards. More importantly, this a huge let down for consumers. Dashboards had the potential to empower pension savers but they’ve been badly let down by a project that has over-promised and under-delivered.
“The previous timetable setting out connection times for pension schemes, and a possible launch date for the public has been scrapped, and the public and industry now are left rudderless with no idea of the current state of play. There is no date for dashboards launch, and there are now major doubts about whether the project can be delivered before the next election.
“Pensions dashboards are an important development which had the potential to shake up pension saving in the UK. They would have given people the ability to see all their pensions in one place, leading to better engagement and helping savers making better pension decisions.
“The government has fumbled this opportunity. And in doing so they have let down UK pension savers.
“Developing pensions dashboards was always an ambitious project. To be effective it had to show someone all their pension savings – but that meant including all private pension schemes, public sector schemes and state pensions.
“The government should have got this right from the start. But they have now effectively pulled the plug just weeks before connection was due to start.”
