Bells says dashboard ‘has improved data quality’ as launch confirmed for 2027

Speaking at a progress report update on the dashboards project this week, Bell said the exercise had driven up the quality and availability of scheme member data. He described the development of dashboards as a “major pensions moment” that will transform how people engage with their retirement savings.

The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed that 85% of schemes in the scope of the project have connected to the MoneyHelper-enabled ecosystem, with all in-scope schemes expected to meet the 31 October statutory connection deadline.

“The first time in history people are going to be able to see how much of the UK’s £3trn worth of pension wealth they have got, and they’re going to see it all in one place,” the pensions minister said.

Bell added that despite the programme having been delayed significantly before being “reset” by the previous government, it was now on track and appeared to have encouraged schemes to clear up and modernise data systems and processes.

He said there would be a six-month warning before the pensions dashboards site went live, expected to be next year, and added that the public launch timetable would be confirmed once the industry had completed its own connection obligations.

“For the most part, it’s really going well with people. They’re finding it incredibly useful.”

Oliver Morley, Money and Pensions Service

Oliver Morley, chief executive of the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), which is overseeing the development of the MoneyHelper dashboard, said early consumer testing had given the project cause for optimism, with around 3,000 to 4,000 people having already tested the service.

He said: “For the most part, it’s really going well with people. They’re finding it incredibly useful.”

Morley also explained that the dashboard did not and would not store pension data centrally. The system instead sends secure requests to connected pension schemes, which return matching records in real time.

He said: “The most important thing is that we don’t hold the data – we don’t want to hold the data.”

At a separate dashboards webinar hosted by the Pensions Regulator, Chris Curry, principal at the Pensions Dashboards Programme, reiterated this point about where data is stored and emphasised that it was designed to reduce potential vulnerabilities that cybercriminals could exploit.

Curry also indicated that it was critical to get the dashboard working well at launch to preserve trust, adding that the process of opening the service to the public would not be rushed.

Beyond pension pot values?

The dashboard will display projected retirement income alongside current pot values for defined contribution schemes. It will also provide contact details for pension providers, as well as signposting users to guidance services such as Pension Wise.

Morley also revealed that all pension types, including defined benefit, defined contribution, and collective defined contribution schemes, will be supported within the dashboards ecosystem from mid-July, although not every individual scheme will be connected until the October deadline.

Asked whether dashboards could prompt concern among savers discovering smaller-than-expected retirement incomes, Morley said MaPS was preparing extensive guidance alongside the service. This would also be aimed at supporting financial professionals, including advisers and trustees, with an expected surge in requests for guidance and advice.

“We can’t stop people from making whatever choices they make, but we can at least make sure that they understand the choices there are,” he added.

During a demonstration to the media today, Morley explained that the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard will allow savers to securely access information about all of their pensions using their GOV.UK One Login information. This is the account that is also used to access and manage tax payments, self-assessment, student loan and other National Insurance and benefit information.

Additional reporting by Nick Reeve.