The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will launch a consultation on the pension dashboard later this year and said it will provide £5m for the project in 2019/20.
The figure was announced in today’s Budget (29 October), which stated the government was taking steps to support "the launch of pensions dashboards, innovative tools that will for the first time allow an individual to see their pension pots, including their state pension, in one place".
The DWP will consult later this year on the detailed design for the project, and on how "an industry-led approach could harness innovation while protecting consumers".
However, no more funding from the government is expected for the following years.
Sir Steve Webb, director of policy at Royal London, said: "It is a real step forward that the government has indicated that state pension data will be included in the design of what it calls ‘pension dashboards’.
"This greatly increases the prospect of dashboards which cover all the key pension information which consumers need to know. The additional £5m a year for the DWP in 2019/20 is also a welcome symbol of the fact that the government is committed to taking this agenda forward, albeit more slowly than we would have wished."
FTAdviser reported last week that pressure is mounting for the government to force all providers to feed data into the pension dashboard project.
The pension dashboard is supposed to launch in 2019 as an initiative to allow savers to see information on all their retirement savings in one place.
Last month the government said it would let the industry take lead on the project as it shied away from committing to force providers to submit client data.
So far the DWP has spent about £100,000 on the dashboard feasibility study, which was originally tabled to be published in March.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
