"This will give certainty to the project and enable pensions administrators to get board approval for their PDP projects to re-start as soon as possible."
- Dave Poynton, Equisoft product manager
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has outlined the new timeline for industry connection to pensions dashboards.
The timetable for pension providers and schemes set out in guidance will see connection for wider industry starting from April 2025, with volunteer participants connecting from August 2024. This follows a commitment to give industry at least 12 months’ notice ahead of the first connection dates.
Last year, DWP announced a 'reset' of the Pensions Dashboard Programme, pushing the deadline back until October 2026.
Earlier this week, four potential operators of pensions dashboards - Just Group, Legal & General, Moneyhub and Standard Life - launcehed a new industry coalition.
Paul Maynard, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Pensions, said: "The success of automatic enrolment has led to record numbers of people saving for retirement. Pensions dashboards will allow individuals to view information about their pensions, including their State Pension, for free, in one place online. This will help individuals’ awareness and understanding of their pension information and estimated income in retirement, building a greater sense of individual control and ownership.
"Since the reset was initiated last year, the Pensions Dashboards Programme has made significant progress building and testing the system which will enable pensions dashboards to work. Subject to satisfactory testing, the programme plans to begin the process of connecting the organisations building a direct connection, including DWP State Pension, from August 2024. Connection testing will then continue to ensure readiness to support wider industry connection from early 2025.
"The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions will today publish guidance setting out a staged timetable for connection. This will help smooth the process of connecting the approximately 3,000 pension schemes and providers in scope by the connection deadline of 31 October 2026. The timetable prioritises connection of the largest pension schemes and providers, so that crucial user testing can quickly take place at scale, with the first cohort expected to have completed connection by the end of April 2025. Whilst the timetable is not mandatory, it is a legal requirement that trustees or managers of occupational pension schemes and providers of personal and stakeholder pensions have regard to this guidance.
"The Government is absolutely committed to delivering pensions dashboards safely and securely to the public at the earliest opportunity. The publication of the connection timetable marks a significant milestone towards launching pensions dashboards, and takes us closer to introducing a service that has the potential to transform how individuals plan for retirement."
Chris Curry, principal of the Pensions Dashboards Programme, commented: “Pensions dashboards will be a crucial tool to support retirement planning. By showing people’s pensions together in one, online and secure place, they will boost pensions engagement, benefiting individuals and industry.
“Delivering dashboards is complex, and I’m continually grateful for the spirit of co-operation across government, regulators and industry. The timetable for connection is an important step on the journey to making dashboards a reality.
“The Pensions Dashboards Programme continues to work closely with industry as we prepare for the first pension providers and schemes to begin connecting, providing as much information and answering as many questions as possible.”
Dave Poynton, Equisoft product manager and newly appointed PDP Advisory Board member, added: “We welcome the formal announcement today by the Pensions Minister of the new timeline for the Pensions Dashboards. This will give certainty to the project and enable pensions administrators to get board approval for their PDP projects to re-start as soon as possible. Even those companies who have not paused their projects will face challenges given the scale and complexity of the operational processes of the PDP.
"Fortunately, we were able to fully test Pension Fusion against PDP’s version 11 standards before the programme went into reset allowing us to continue to focus on developing the system features, building integrated journeys and plan for delivery to production. The next step for us is updating in-line with the pending revised standards and PDP processes, testing with the programme as a voluntary participant, ready to become a certified ISP provider and support our clients in their onboarding journey to meet their regulatory requirements. We are confident that given our experience working with customers who didn’t pause their projects we are well positioned to successfully deal with the challenges of getting people ready for PDP going live.”
