The twelve months of dashboard…

So, ‘tis the season to be festive… and as we await with baited breathe the gift of the feasibility study, let’s reflect on the long 12 months of 2018 in relation to the pension dashboard. Having been first proposed by the Financial Conduct Authority in 2014, a prototype delivered in 2017 – there was hope that a 2018 reflection would have more by the way of delivery to talk about.  But alas, the year did not go that way. Whilst the pension dashboard has been somewhat stalled the banking industry has delivered open banking…there are so many learnings we can draw on, not only to deliver a dashboard, but future proof it too.

In the first month of 2018 – Guy Opperman gave to us… 4 key priorities:

• Delivering greater engagement with pension savings and automatic enrolment

• Developing a “properly safeguarded” pensions dashboard by 2019
• Tackling pension scammers
• Improving advice and guidance through a single financial guidance body

In the second month of 2018 – Which? gave to us a Report with 12 recommendations to ensure delivery of the Pension Dashboard by April 2019: including…

• the government legislating to allow users to access all of their pensions data in one place online
• establishing an independent body to govern the pensions dashboard
• making information available on the pensions dashboard relevant and comprehensive.

In the third month of 2018 – the due date of the feasibility study came and went, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) muted asking providers to volunteer the data needed to make dashboard happen as there wouldn’t be time to legislate – as Brexit takes control of time available to discuss legislative matters.

In the fourth month of 2018 – the Work and Pensions Select Committee called for a single, public sector body to provide the dashboard – funded by an industry levy.

In the fifth month of 2018 – came silence.

In the sixth month of 2018 – the government gave to us a response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s report on pension freedoms which stated that the future of the Pension Dashboard will be set out in the ‘forthcoming DWP feasibility study’.

In the seventh month of 2018 – Esther McVey said Pension Dashboard should not be provided by the state as it would be a distraction to rolling out universal credit.

In the eighth month of 2018 – the public gave to us over 200,000 signatures petitioning against the proposed plans to scrap the dashboard.

In the ninth month of 2018 – the DWP gave to us their re-confirmed support for the creation of a pension dashboard built by the industry, facilitated by the government.

In the tenth month of 2018 – the chancellor gave to us £5m in the budget to make the dashboard a reality.

In the eleventh month of 2018 – the government gave to us a new secretary of state for Work and Pensions – Amber Rudd.

In the twelfth month of 2018 – Guy Opperman gave an invite to key industry figures…

Hopefully this will be the long awaited feasibility study.  Will there be compulsion? Will there be an extension to the April 2019 delivery deadline? How will security and ID verification be delivered? Will the State Pension be included? Will there be one or many dashboards? How will governance be provided?

There are more questions than answers right now.  But – watch this space!