The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has issued advice to trustees dealing with multiple administrators while connecting their pension schemes to the pensions dashboards system.
Pension schemes that cannot ensure all administrators are connected to the system by the scheme’s connection deadline will be in breach of the Pensions Regulator’s (TPR) rules.
This is an issue for pension schemes with multiple sections or with additional voluntary contributions administered by a different administrator to the main scheme.
TPR and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expect all parts of a pension scheme to connect to the dashboards system at the same time.
If this is not possible, the regulators told PASA that “it is expected that efforts are made to connect any remaining sections at the earliest opportunity”.
TPR and the FCA have both pledged to take a pragmatic approach with pension schemes that miss their connection deadline, while “taking into account the potential impact on members”.
Do you know your scheme’s dashboards connection deadline?
The Department for Work and Pensions set out its staging timetable for pensions dashboards connections last year, with different pension schemes and providers expected to connect each month depending on size and type. Check your deadline here.
For pension schemes regulated by TPR, those missing the deadline should consider whether they need to report a breach of law to the regulator. Breaches are “not normally” considered significant if immediate action is taken to remedy the issue, TPR told PASA.
For FCA-regulated forms, the authority referred to its Conduct of Business rulebook, which has a specific allowance for deadlines as long as the final 31 October 2026 date is met.
PASA suggested that pension schemes with multiple administrators should ensure they know all relevant service providers’ connection dates and align these with administrators.
If not all administrators will be connected by the pension scheme’s deadline, trustees should decide whether to proceed with those that are ready while also establishing a plan to get the rest of the pension scheme connected as soon as possible.
While trustees may delegate some of this work, PASA emphasised that “the requirement to connect all benefits on the same date or take appropriate action where this isn’t possible remains a trustee duty”.
