The government should commit to bringing pensions dashboards to the general public by next year, according to Moneybox’s head of personal finance.
Moneybox is one of three companies – along with Standard Life and Aegon – to have announced successful connections to the pensions dashboards ecosystem in the past few days.
The first deadline for dashboards connection was on 30 April and applied to the largest pension providers in the country. The Money and Pensions Service is expected to begin user testing of its MoneyHelper dashboard later this year.
Last month, Legal & General became the first company to announce the completion of its connection.
Brian Byrnes, head of personal finance at Moneybox, said the connection was “a critical first step in transforming how people engage with their pension savings and plan for retirement”.
“Maintaining momentum is now essential,” he said. “The Pensions Dashboards Programme must move swiftly through its user testing phase and commit to transparency in its findings, enabling the industry to learn from this insight and support the successful development of future commercial dashboards.
“A firm government commitment to making dashboards available to the public by 2026 is now vital to deliver on the long-overdue promise of these reforms.
“For dashboards to truly succeed, the needs and behaviours of real users must remain at the forefront.”
Other reforms to areas of personal finance, such as a review of ISAs and the Financial Conduct Authority’s Advice Guidance Boundary Review, could also help “reshape the personal finance landscape for the better”, Byrnes said, as long as these changes were “progressed at pace and in a coordinated way”.
This week, Aegon announced that it has connected its largest pension funds with the dashboards ecosystem, covering around 70% of its pension policies. The rest will be connected over the coming months, the company said.
Nick Roy, director of workplace pensions at Aegon, said: “The success of this stage – given the complexity of the requirements as well as being the first time we have had to test and complete connection – provides the highest level of confidence that further connect by dates will be met for our remaining schemes over the coming months.
“This is a big step forward for the overall dashboards programme and in helping customers to engage with their pensions and make informed decisions based on a more holistic view of their retirement savings.”
Dashboard connection ‘a significant undertaking’
Standard Life announced its connection last week, covering all of its trust- and contract-based pension offerings. Its parent company, Phoenix Group, has also completed its connections through Equisoft, the firm’s chosen integrated service provider.
Standard Life also said its connection was “a stepping stone towards it offering a private sector dashboard at a later date”.
Jenny Holt, product director at Standard Life, said the project was “a significant undertaking”, but brought the company closer to “making pensions dashboards a reality”.
Gail Izat, managing director for workplace and retail intermediary at Standard Life added: “Pension dashboards will unlock many benefits for customers as they start to roll out in the coming years.
“There’s an estimated £31bn sitting in lost pension pots reflecting the fact that people are increasingly working for multiple employers and losing track of their savings.
“The ability to see all your pension savings and projected income in one place will, alongside the small pots initiative, transform people’s ability to plan ahead for retirement and take control of their financial future.”
