By April 2025 it is expected that 99 per cent of memberships will be connected to the digital architecture and sharing members’ data.
Tom Selby, head of retirement policy at AJ Bell, said: “Anyone expecting dashboards to be launched immediately with bells and whistles attached might be disappointed by the relatively slow staging timetable outlined today.
“The government has understandably focused on getting the biggest schemes to comply first as this is where the majority of pensions are held. Once a ‘critical mass’ of schemes has been reached and prototypes have been fully tested, dashboards will then be made available to the public.”
Webb added: “Bringing together full pension data in one place is a mammoth task and ministers have repeatedly over-promised and under-delivered on this goal. Back in 2016 there was a promise of a dashboard in use by 2019, but now it looks as though the first generally accessible dashboard will not be available until mid 2024 – at least five years late.
"The biggest headaches include bringing on the public service schemes, which have major headaches of their own to deal with, and defined benefit pension schemes where complex new calculations may be required.
"It is vital that the government ensures there is no further slippage in this project and that the benefits of dashboards are available to the public as soon as possible”.
amy.austin@ft.com
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