Govt accused of lacking confidence on pension dashboard

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Govt accused of lacking confidence on pension dashboard

The government has been accused of lacking the confidence to establish the pensions dashboard, for fear the data involved may not be accurate.

Speaking at the Society of Pension Professionals annual conference on Friday (21 September), Gregg McClymont (pictured), director of policy and external affairs at The People’s Pension, and former shadow pensions minister, said delays in setting up the project stemmed from the anticipated workload and uncertainty about the data involved.

He said: "If you are the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and [the dashboard has] been passed from the Treasury to you, are you confident enough - from a risk-reward point of view - to sign off on releasing every single piece of pensions data that exists in the UK.

"Because if you dig into it, it gets very complicated and risky."

Mr McClymont said the UK’s situation was different from other countries that have successfully created a pension dashboard.

He said: "The reality is that the fragmentation of the UK pension system means that the scale of the task is inestimably greater than in the Netherlands or Sweden, which are much smaller countries."

The DWP did not want to comment, saying "our dashboard position is as laid out in the pensions minister’s written ministerial statement on 4 September."

The plan behind the pension dashboard, which is due to launch in 2019, is to create the technology to allow savers to see all of their retirement pots in one place at the same time, giving them a greater awareness of their assets and how to plan for their retirement.

Earlier this month, the government said it would let the industry take lead on the project after it had emerged in July that Ms McVey had made moves to kill off the project, saying the service should not be provided by the state.

FTAdviser reported last week that more than 20 pension providers and administrators are demanding ‘a firm stance on compulsion’ from the government on the pension dashboard after coming together to discuss the project.

So far, the DWP has spent about £100,000 on the dashboard feasibility study, which was originally tabled to be published in March, and is expected to be published shortly.

maria.espadinha@ft.com