The chair of the Money and Pensions Service declined to give a launch date for the public pension dashboard, saying there were too many variables to be considered at this time.
At a hearing before the Work and Pensions select committee yesterday (March 11), Sir Hector Sants, chairman of Maps, said: “It is not realistic for me to set up a date.”
He said Maps still had to determine the technology that will be used for the project.
“We have made a decision that given the speed of change in the technology sector it would be appropriate to make a best appraisal of the options in that space, which we can make in the coming months.
“Once we know what the technical solution is we will need to engage with the government procurement rules, and the rules vary considerably, and in certain circumstances [these procedures] run for a number of years.”
He also noted that the department for Work and Pension has signalled that it might take a number of years to get the state pension data ready for the dashboard.
Chris Curry, principal of the Pensions Dashboard Industry Delivery Group at Maps, added there were a number of other issues that the guidance body was looking at.
“Digital identity is an important one, the safety and security of anybody using the dashboard is paramount in what we are doing here. The [government’s] digital identity service is undergoing a review at the moment, we are waiting a response to the consultation.
“So, there are a number of different features the availability of a public dashboard is heavily dependent upon, and it would be very premature of us to put a target date out there, which might drive or change the focus onto the date than actually delivering the right service, which is what we are focused on.”
Sir Sants promised to deliver a first report on the progress of the project in April, in which a timeline for the pension dashboard will be set.
DWP confirmed in December 2018 that it wants to see multiple pensions dashboards, with the first one being developed by Maps.
In February, the guidance body announced that it had commissioned research to understand the challenges pension schemes face in providing data for the project.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
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