PLSA Annual Conference 2017: Pensions minister Guy Opperman provided some clarity on timescales for the dashboard and progress on the creation of a single financial guidance body in a speech at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s annual conference.
A year has passed since former pensions minister Richard Harrington took to the stage at the 2016 PLSA event, shortly after being appointed to the role.
But following June’s snap election and subsequent government reshuffling, new minister for pensions and financial inclusion Opperman greeted attendees at the PLSA’s 2017 conference last Thursday.
I propose to provide a much fuller update on the dashboard in the spring of next year
Guy Opperman, minister for pensions and financial inclusion
Opperman began by reassuring delegates, repeating that he “was delighted to be given this job”, and stressing that “contrary to some people’s beliefs, I really enjoy doing this”.
While his predecessor held the position for only 11 months, exacerbating a growing sense of uncertainty in the pensions world, Opperman was keen to emphasise his commitment to the position.
“I want to be a champion for pensions and savings,” he announced.
During the second week of October, the Association of British Insurers, which led a group of companies to produce a pensions dashboard prototype in March this year, urged the government to legislate for schemes to provide their data to the project.
Alongside a call for compulsion, to force schemes and providers to make their data available for inclusion in the dashboard, the association called for an implementation timetable.
Opperman confirmed that the Department for Work and Pensions would take forward the pensions dashboard project on behalf of the government.
“Consumers need access to good information on their pensions,” he said, adding that a well-designed dashboard had the potential to enhance consumer engagement while helping people make better decisions.
DWP to conduct dashboard feasibility study
However, he highlighted there were still a number of areas to consider, including governance arrangements, whether to compel schemes to take part, and a model of delivery that would work for both the industry and the user.
Opperman said that the DWP would lead a feasibility study to explore these factors, while ensuring that consumer interests were properly safeguarded.
The study will build on the work that has already been carried out by the ABI, and it will be considering all aspects of the dashboard, including timing, data, cost and regulation.
Despite reassuring the industry that the dashboard, which is due to be ready in 2019, would go ahead, Opperman was vague about the timescale.
While the DWP intended to “take this work on at pace… I propose to provide a much fuller update in the spring of next year”, Opperman stated.
“Be in absolutely no doubt, the dashboard will happen,” he added.
The minister also mentioned auto-enrolment, citing recent DWP research that revealed small employers found the implementation of auto-enrolment less expensive and time-consuming than they had expected.
He emphasised that the window for feeding into the government’s auto-enrolment review was closing, stressing that “if you have not fed into it, you have got to do so fairly soon”.
Opperman aims to report the findings of the review to parliament the week commencing December 6.
With regard to the mastertrust authorisation and supervision regime introduced by the Pension Schemes Act 2017, the minister said he was working closely with stakeholders “to develop the secondary legislation that is needed to implement... this regime” and “we’ll be formally consulting before Christmas”.
DB white paper due in late February
On the issue of the affordability and suitability of defined benefit schemes, Opperman mentioned the DWP’s green paper, which was published in February 2017 and discussed numerous solutions, including consolidation and greater powers for the Pensions Regulator.
He said: “We now plan to outline the changes that we feel would help facilitate greater consolidation, along with other proposals, in a white paper.”
His comments came a few hours after a panel session earlier in the day, during which the DWP’s Charlotte Clark, director of private pensions and stewardship, said she was hopeful the white paper would be published by the end of February 2018.
Guidance bill could be signed off in March
Around this time last year, the Treasury and the DWP announced that they would be replacing the Money Advice Service, Pension Wise and the Pensions Advisory Service with a single financial guidance body.
Timetable risks breaking dashboard consensus
The Association of British Insurers has called on government to legislate for schemes to provide their data to the pensions dashboard amid criticism a hasty delivery could leave the project failing consumers.
Opperman praised the idea of a more holistic approach, claiming it would make it easier for people to “access the impartial help they need in making effective financial decisions”.
He said the financial guidance and claims bill to merge the financial guidance bodies, “has been working its way through the House of Lords”, and would have its third reading on November 6.
The minister will then take it through the House of Commons at the beginning of December, and if all goes to plan it is anticipated that the bill will be signed off in March 2018.
More generally, Opperman stressed that, as part of a push for a positive future for pensions, “I believe that we should all be of one voice”.
This echoed David Gauke’s call for consensus in July, which remained a strong theme throughout his first speech as secretary of state for work and pensions.
