More detail emerges on pensions dashboard
The working group charged with devising a pensions dashboard – a single destination where consumers will be able to view all their retirement savings pots – has released its view of what it should look like.
The Pensions Finder project said the dashboard should begin as a single platform standing on three pillars – digital identification, a dashboard user interface and a service to search for old pensions accounts.
We want to work with government and the wider industry so the dashboard can help customers with public sector pensions and those in trust-based schemes
The platform will be built standalone, with architecture that will allow different models, including multiple dashboards to be integrated in the future, with a prototype ready for public testing in 2017 before going live in 2019.
The Association of British Insurers intends to lead the development of the next phase of the pensions dashboard and may even create its own prototype.
ABI-led project
The pensions dashboard concept was announced as an objective by the Financial Conduct Authority in December 2014, following its retirement market review. Research by provider B&CE has shown strong support for the idea.
Though designed to be an industry project, key stakeholders include the Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions, the FCA and the Pensions Regulator.
Yvonne Braun, director of policy, long-term savings and protection at the ABI said the organisation’s record of delivering complex, industry-led projects in partnership with government, makes it best placed to lead the project.
Development won’t be undertaken in isolation or with ABI members alone, as ABI will consult the wider industry to ensure the broadest possible coverage.
"We know we cannot do this alone. We want to work with government and the wider industry so the dashboard can help customers with public sector pensions and those in trust-based schemes,” said Braun.
Steve Webb, director of policy at Royal London, welcomed the development, but spoke of his “frustration” at the government’s “lack of leadership” in leaving the development to industry when countries such as Australia, Sweden and the Netherlands already offer dashboards.
“Government has been too hands-off to date and needs to drive this project forward, otherwise savers will continue to have far too little information about their overall pension position,” he said.
The dashboard must have from day one both state pension and auto-enrolment included as “the bare minimum”, said Webb
“But it needs governance with teeth, and government to stand behind it,“ he added.
David Harris, managing director of Tor Financial Consulting, said Webb’s acclaim for Australia, Netherlands and Sweden is also premature, says Harris.
Denmark is leading the way with its PensionsInfo resource, but this has been possible because of the the regulatory environment it operates in.
The white paper says that consumers – in particular younger ones – favour a dashboard, and research indicates they would be more likely to take action to increase contributions if they had access to one.
However, none of the stakeholders have explained how the expensive infrastructure would nudge an individual into making these decisions and that “the call for compulsion gets louder”.
“If you don’t give direction or put in place the regulation and connectivity, it simply won’t happen,” said Harris. “The UK has to ask what does a dashboard do for a consumer buffeted by pension freedoms and unintended regulatory issues.”