Make integration with the pensions dashboard plain sailing – prepare early.
The government’s confirmed that pensions dashboards will be introduced to the UK over the next few years. They have the potential to revolutionise how people engage with all their retirement income – making it easy by showing all their pensions in one place.
Every pension scheme and provider will need to put in place a technology solution to expose their customers’ data to dashboards. If you have data quality issues, you’ll need to complete a cleanse exercise, so the pensions can be found and understood.
We’re the UK’s leading specialist pensions data management and systems solutions provider. We were one of only six partners in the ABI-led Dashboard Prototype Project, and we’ve remained engrained in the ongoing debate since then.
We’ve used our insights to create guidance – keeping you up to date with key issues, what you need to do and how we’ll support you.
The Government plans to pass new primary legislation, compelling all pension schemes and providers to share their data with pensions dashboards.
The new compulsion duties will apply to different schemes in stages, with the largest schemes expected to be in the earlier stages in order to maximise early participation. Large defined contribution schemes are expected to be among the first. This is echoed in The Pensions Regulator’s update confirming 38 authorised master trusts are expected to lead the way with data that is in good shape for the dashboard. Early voluntary participation is also an option. The government is working towards including State Pension data in dashboards at the earliest possible opportunity too.
We’ve pulled together some provisional dates – these are just our ideas – no formal dates have been set just yet.
The Pensions Bill included dashboard compulsion provisions. However, the Bill only got as far as a second reading in the House of Lords before Parliament was dissolved for a general election. The Bill is now back with exactly the same content and making its way through parliament under the newly formed Conservative government. This will then lead to the Pensions Act 2020 – although there isn’t a date for this just yet.
Covid-19 continues to have an unprecedented global impact, so the April 2020 Progress Update from MaPS was published for information only. Accompanied by two working papers detailing the scope of dashbaords and the data elements required.
Regulations will then define exactly what schemes must do, the date they’ll need to comply and which schemes and providers must comply. It’ll likely include rules about whether small schemes will be exempt.
We think the compulsion “window” is likely to start.
We believe there’ll be a phased compulsion window of at least two years.
We’re actively contributing to the thinking around pensions dashboards – we’ll be updating here regularly on the latest position, and expert views on what it means for you.
In the meantime, take a look at our data services to see how you can prepare early.
Behind dashboards, a whole ecosystem of technology components must work together within a sophisticated digital architecture. The Money & Pensions Service (MAPS) is defining the principles to procure all these components.
Chris Curry has been appointed Principal (or Chair) of the programme. Chris has been joined by 10 industry experts to form the Pensions Dashboard Programme Steering Group – you can read about the Steering Group members on MAPS website here.
We were a key partner in the 2017 dashboard prototype project, so we know that getting dashboards to work will require technical collaboration across the whole pensions industry. To lead this industry-wide collaboration the MAPS deliver group will be focussed on:
We’re actively contributing to these discussions as MAPS establishes the delivery group.
There are several key dependencies for the implementation of dashboards, these include the requirements and procurement of an identity verification service, design and development of a secure digital architecture alongside the design requirements of the core service – pension finder service and governance register. Various Working Groups will soon be established to start working on the detail of the delivery plan. Check back here regularly for the latest updates and expert views on what it means for you.
A set of detailed data standards will be established and must be adopted so that pensions can be found securely and consistently. Regulators will monitor schemes’ exposure of data and the dashboards’ protection of it.
The industry must work closely with the delivery group and regulators to agree the necessary data standards. The two working papers released in April detail the proposed breadth and depth of initial dashboards. You can read the thinking so far on the scope of dashboards and the data items required for dashboards. It’s likely that the initial data requirements will be aligned to the data required for an annual statement, but grow over time. Similarly, dashboard functionality will start with a simple “find and show” service, but is expected to develop over time, with changes to the data standards as appropriate.
As the UK’s leading pensions data specialists, we’ve been at the heart of the detailed data discussions so far. We’ll continue to work very closely with both industry colleagues and regulators as the data standards are agreed.
The Steering Group have considered a number of options for the approach to early coverage. They agreed on focussed data with broad coverage – meaning that ‘find and view’ data will be mandatory for all (or nearly all) pension sectors. Various Working Groups will soon be established to start working on the detail of the delivery plan. Check back here regularly for the latest updates and expert views on what it means for you.
Data quality analysis or cleanse work already underway, or planned, will stand schemes in good stead prior to dashboard compulsion. There’ll also be an opportunity to participate early on a voluntary basis.
The Money & Pensions Service’s delivery group will be planning the dashboard roadmap in detail. We expect user testing to be undertaken in 2019 and 2020, where details about the dashboard data requirements will become clearer.
You don’t need to wait until then. All data quality analysis and cleanse work will enable you to get ahead, preparing you for participation with dashboards.
Schemes are likely to rely heavily on their in-house or third-party administrators to help them comply. Engaging early with administration software suppliers to understand their plans for supporting clients with dashboard compliance is prudent.
If you’re ready early, voluntary participation may be an option you’d like to consider – it’ll be a great chance to help influence the shape of the overall ecosystem, and the underlying data standards, for the eventual benefit of all UK citizens.
We already help many clients with their pensions data challenges – with analysis, reporting, cleansing and migrating data. We can help you too.
