A survey of an audience of UK pension scheme trustees, lawyers and pension managers revealed that a huge amount of work will be needed if schemes are to be ready for pension dashboards.
At an industry webinar, hosted by LCP earlier this week, attendees were asked if they had prepared a pensions dashboard ‘project plan’. Just 39% said they had, with 42% saying they had not and a further 19% stating they did not know.
LCP said that with larger schemes being expected to connect to the Pensions Dashboard ‘ecosystem’ by this time next year, the lack of planning could lead to a serious capacity crunch next year as deadlines approach.
Last month the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published guidance on pension dashboards’ connection, setting out that larger schemes with 20,000 or more members will need to connect by 30 April 2025, and medium sized schemes with between 750 and 999 members will need to connect by 31 January 2026.
Ella Holloway, senior consultant at LCP, said it was “surprising” to see that so many schemes were yet to come up with a project plan for dashboards.
She said: “Whilst momentum had stalled while the government re-set its timetable, it is now ‘full steam ahead’. Schemes should now know the date by which the government expects them to connect to the dashboards ecosystem, and the backstop deadline of October 2026 will be upon us before we know it.”
She noted that the “secret” to making dashboards “as painless as possible” was planning. However, she pointed out that the survey results show that schemes have “a long way to go” with dashboard preparedness.
Connection
Also discussed at the webinar was how schemes will connect to the dashboard ecosystem. Options include connecting directly or using a specialist ‘integrated service provider’ (ISP) to help manage the process.
Attendants were asked about their plans, and just over one third said they were planning to use an ISP and around 11% were building their own solution. However, just over half (54%) of those attending said they did not know how their scheme would connect.
Marcus Renouf-Allen, senior consultant at LCP, said: “Thousands of schemes will need to connect to the dashboards ecosystem, and a decision on how to do this needs to be made sooner rather than later.”
He said that for smaller schemes in particular, it is likely that they will want to use the services of a specialist ISP, and there could be a rush to sign up to ISPs as deadlines approach.
“To avoid being a victim of a capacity crunch, schemes need to finalise their connection plans as soon as possible,” he added.
Other concerns
A wide variety of questions were tabled, with particular concerns including how schemes going through a buyout process with an insurance company should think about their dashboard duties and whether trustees would have much freedom when it came to designing their own criteria for ‘matching’ dashboard users against scheme membership lists.
LCP also highlighted that there was a risk of a ‘Martin Lewis effect’ at the initial launch of dashboards, with millions of people prompted to search for lost pension pots all at the same time.
Schemes were warned of the need to put in place ‘surge capacity’ to avoid being overwhelmed with inquiries, as well as readying themselves for more interest in pension transfers and consolidation once dashboards go live.
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