Pensions Dashboards unlikely to be delivered this year
06 January 2020
Former Pensions Minister, Steve Webb, has advised that it is highly unlikely that the eagerly anticipated pensions dashboards, as referenced in the Queen’s Speech, will be delivered this year.
The implementation of the dashboards has fierce industry-wide and government backing but the complex technology behind it is unlikely to be delivered “any time soon” according to Sir Webb. Due to the general election that took place in December, the legislation, laid out within the Pension Schemes Bill, has been delayed which has meant that the ambition of the 2016 Budget to design, fund and launch pensions dashboards by 2019 has sadly not been realised.
As reported by Pensions Expert, Sir Webb did confirm that he believes that the Pension Schemes Bill will be revisited in 2020, with significant focus placed on the creation of pensions dashboards, but that the primary legislation could take most of 2020 to reach the statute book. This could then be followed by a long period of consultation on regulations and secondary legislation to lay out the requirements of providers and the industry in general, along with discussions surrounding the functionality and appearance of the dashboards. He said:
“One of the main measures in the pensions bill will be legislation to implement the long-awaited pensions dashboard. The main measures require pension schemes and pension providers to supply data to the dashboard, as well as making it possible for state pension data to be displayed as well. But we should not expect to see a comprehensive dashboard any time soon.
Once the legislative work is complete, we are likely to see an early batch of data loaded on to the dashboard, mainly from more modern automatic-enrolment schemes offered by insurers and master trusts.
After this, it is likely to be several more years before a lot of the older data from company and private pensions will be visible on the dashboard. But 2020 should at least give confirmation that the project is going ahead and enable the whole industry to focus on delivering it.”
Information provided in this news article may be subject to change. Please make note of the date of publication to ensure that you are viewing up to date information.