With a connection timeline established, trustees need to address dashboard needs and work with third parties to achieve them, delegates at the PLSA conference heard last week.
In a session dedicated to updating the industry on the progress of the long-awaited technology at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association Annual Conference in Liverpool, experts explained to delegates that the timeline had begun to move at pace and schemes needed to be ready.
Kim Gubler, chair and director of PASA, said schemes and trustees should have a dashboard action plan that goes beyond simply being ready for connection.
“That plan should include how we maintain ongoing data quality, how we'll meet reporting requirements, and how we'll ensure that the values and messaging pension savers actually receive are coherent and useful."
This proactive approach is essential for helping pension savers make informed decisions about their financial futures, such as consolidating pensions or increasing contributions, she said.
Neil Bull, executive director of market oversight at The Pensions Regulator, outlined the regulator’s expectations on schemes' preparations for dashboards.
“We’re providing comprehensive support to help schemes prepare, a checklist to help schemes to track their progress, a tool to look up your connection date if you're unsure."
Yet he noted that not all schemes have yet engaged.
“We are reaching out to schemes in scope for dashboards, which we believe may be failing in our expectations,” said Bull. “They'll need to account to us as to why they have not taken action. That work started this week and is the first of several pieces of work we'll be doing to make sure schemes’ data is dashboard ready."
Bull gave three key points on his checklist for scheme: “Speak to your key partners early - so that's anyone who's helping you deliver but especially your administrator.
"Work out how you will connect to the ecosystem and work with your chosen third-party supplier to make sure this happens in a staggered and controlled manner."
"Prepare your data, both the data you will use to find savers in your records and the value data you will return to them.”
He added that this data needed to be accurate and digitally accessible, calculated in line with the new FRC rules for DC schemes or the scheme rules for DB, which could mean putting in place mechanisms to revalue benefits where they have not been recently calculated.
Chris Curry, principal of the Pensions Dashboards Programme, MAPS, and director of the Pensions Policy Institute, provided an update on the timeline for pensions dashboards. He noted that while the official regulatory date for all schemes to connect is October 31, 2026, there will be some schemes connecting as soon as April next year.
Curry said current focus was on ensuring that all stakeholders were prepared for this connection process, with user testing planned to begin in 2025 to assess the effectiveness of the dashboards.
He added: “We're expecting the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] to publish their authorisation process later this year as well, which will be a key part of understanding how commercial dashboards are going to come on stream as part of that.”
Session chair Laura Myers, head of DC, LCP, noted audience concerns about how to effectively communicate information to avoid savers misunderstanding what the dashboard was showing them and how it should be used.
Ultimately, the panel urged trustees to prioritise this initiative in their agendas and maintain open lines of communication with regulators and administrators.
Their overarching message was one of urgency, emphasising that preparations should not be delayed as the implementation timeline approaches. They concluded that trustees should aim to look to the future as far as possible and get ready for dashboards to be a key part of the pensions infrastructure.
