The trust the British public has in the pensions industry could be remedied by a successful rollout of pensions dashboards, according to consultant Richard Smith.
Speaking at an event last month, Smith – volunteer chair of the Pensions Dashboards Operators Coalition – highlighted the difference between attitudes in the UK and in other countries that had already implemented dashboards.
“Trust is pretty much on the floor,” said Smith, citing 2023 research from the Department for Work and Pensions that found most UK adults regard pensions with detachment, complacency or fear.
“Our industry is not very good at serving the majority of the population… We have a problem because we are going to show millions of people inadequate savings.”
As such, Smith said cultivating “some level of basic awareness” is important. Fellow panellist Michelle Lusty, product manager at technology company Bravura, agreed and reflected on the Australian superannuation market. Despite the success super funds have had with dashboards, Lusty said engagement was still a challenge.
“We still have a disengagement problem, because younger people see [pension contributions] as a tax,” said Lusty. “But we are seeing increasing effort on the right kinds of engagement for the right cohorts. The engagement is still more focused on those approaching retirement though.”
When discussing what savers want from dashboards, Smith said there was a growing demand to see all pensions in one location and that “the days of showing one pension are over.”
Using the example of The Netherlands, where people will visit their government dashboard before clicking through to specific providers, Smith said context should not be overlooked.
“Imagine two 51-year-olds with £10,000 pension pots at Legal & General. To the firm, they look identical, but one has a £20,000-a-year defined benefit pension with another provider,” said Smith. “L&G can only treat them differently if they have a commercial dashboard that shows them everything they’ve got.
“Also, we need to humbly understand the need to talk to different people in different ways. Bluntly, we’ve talked with everyone in UK pensions as if they’re an old, white affluent male. We need to be better – commercial dashboards will do that.”
Further reading
Dashboards: ‘All systems go’ as deadlines approach (2 October 2024)
Schemes relying on dashboard rollout face data ‘nightmare’ (25 September 2024)
Five lessons from pensions dashboards overseas (2 October 2023)
This article has been updated to amend the first line.
