On the go: The Association of British Insurers has expressed concerns over the “threat to the pensions dashboard”, following speculation yesterday that secretary of state for work and pensions, Esther McVey, wants to kill off the project.
On Wednesday, the Work and Pensions Committee published a letter from the ABI’s director general Huw Evans stressing that “there is no credible reason why this project should not be proceeding at pace given the work already done and the high levels of support from the industry”, and from the select committee and consumer groups.
In the letter, Evans noted that the Department for Work and Pensions “is the largest department in Whitehall, and is funded by the taxpayer to do more than one thing at a time”.
The ABI led a dashboard prototype project for HM Treasury and the DWP, which was unveiled in March 2017. The service is planned to launch in 2019.
In Parliament on Wednesday morning, following reports in The Times newspaper, the select committee asked pensions and financial inclusion minister Guy Opperman to confirm his October 2017 commitment that “the dashboard will happen”.
Opperman said the department and government have been doing a feasibility study. He told the committee: “No decision has been made. When it has been made, it will be communicated in the appropriate and proper way, and it's probably not appropriate for me to comment any further than that."
