Dashboard, dashboard on the wall...
Editorial: I won’t mention the Department for Work and Pensions, the new cabinet or Ros Altmann, although there would be plenty to say about them. You can read it here.
Something far more geeky is grabbing my attention.
At the click of a button, Origo was able to demonstrate a ‘find pension’ request
The dashboard was something of a unicorn not too long ago, but that has just changed. Origo, the eCommerce standards and service body for the UK finance industry, has said it has given a demonstration of a live feed for a pensions dashboard to a group of industry representatives.
"At the click of a button, Origo was able to demonstrate a ‘find pension’ request,” the body said, including valuation data for the matching record, and using the internet with a pension provider to return the pension contract details.
The pensions dashboard could help countless people grasp how much their pension assets are worth, and how much income they can expect to retire on.
Not least, it would mean they wouldn’t have to deal with sometimes very user-unfriendly websites from providers who happen to manage their company’s pension scheme.
However, it is still unclear if the people able to use the advantages of a dashboard will include defined benefit savers, and whether the dashboard will have one or several front-ends.
It is also not clear how interactive the dashboard will be. Will savers be able to consolidate pensions? Should they be?
The industry still needs to decide - or find out - what can be delivered, and what is in members’ interests. But it looks like things are moving, with Origo and the Association of British Insurers taking things into their own hands.
Will the UK be able to recreate the success of the technology in Sweden, where more than half the population are using the dashboard? It would be a leap forward for pension savers.
The dashboard shouldn't be the stuff of fairy tales anymore, but a happy ending would still be welcome.