Dashboards

Dashboards have been under development for several years but 2023 was expected to be the year of reckoning. However, the DWP unexpectedly “reset” the dashboard programme in March 2023 and in June 2023 announced that there would be a new single connection deadline of 31 October 2026. There is still expected to be a staging timetable in the lead up to this deadline, starting with the largest schemes, which will be in guidance. Whilst the timetable will not be mandatory, the DWP and TPR expect the industry to work collaboratively to meet the revised timeframes. Notwithstanding the new connection deadline, the DWP and TPR have made it clear that they still expect schemes to be preparing for dashboards now.

What is a dashboard?

A pensions dashboard is essentially an online platform where members of the public can access information about all of their UK pensions provision, including their state pension, in one place.  Broadly speaking, trustees of schemes in scope will need to:

  • connect to the dashboard “ecosystem” by their staging date
  • ensure their scheme can receive and service both “find” requests (a request sent as the result of an individual searching for information about their pensions) and “view” requests (a request by an individual to see detailed information about any pension which the dashboard shows they have).

What do trustees need to do?

Meeting their dashboard duties involves a lot of steps.  As a starting point, trustees should:

  • take advice on the decisions they will need to make in relation to dashboards
  • speak to their administrators to understand their connection plans in light of the new timeframes
  • make sure their data is “dashboard ready”.

With the majority of the legislative requirements, guidance and industry standards finalised, schemes should continue with their preparatory work, as dashboards will still be going ahead, just not quite as soon as expected.

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