Pensions Dashboards update

Increasingly pension savers in the UK have more than one pension, so it can be easy to lose track of their pensions as well as get a clear picture of what they’re saving for retirement.

The PDP was set up by Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) to manage a programme to enable individuals to access their pensions information, securely, online and in one place. Working with the DWP and FCA the objective is to support better planning for retirement and growing financial wellbeing.
 

Dashboards are intended to provide clear and simple information about an individual’s multiple pension savings, including their State Pension, in one place. It will also help some savers reconnect with lost pension pots.

It’s a complex project and we’re fully engaged with the PDP, the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the FCA and The Pensions Regulator (TPR). We’ve already made some significant in-roads towards connectivity and are confident we’re able to receive and pass savers data to the dashboards securely and as required by the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022, the FCA rules and Data Standards.   

A dashboards ecosystem is being developed and tested across the industry which will enable data to be found across schemes and providers and shared with an individual saver. Savers can choose which dashboard they use and could use more than one, or change at a future date. They’ll be able to see the information themselves or will be able to delegate to a 3rd party e.g. Pension Wise guidance staff or a regulated financial adviser. 
 

What will your employees experience

1. A user logs onto a dashboard of their choice and will need to submit forename, surname, address, postcode and date of birth, as well as optional National Insurance number. 
   
2. To keep their data safe their request is passed to an identity service to confirm they are who they claim to be.  
   
3. They’ll then be asked to consent that their information can be used and to authorise providers to perform a search on the data they hold.  
   
4. A pension finder service will then send the request to all pension providers and schemes.  
   
5. When a match is made a unique identifier will be returned to the user and reports back all their pensions found (including the State Pension). 
   
6. It’ll show names of their pension schemes and estimated values at their selected retirement age.  
    

How pensions will be matched to savers:

• If their data matches to what a provider holds, administrators will return an identifier that shows a full match and will provide the pensions information once the saver makes a ‘view request’.
• If some of their data matches then a 'partial match' will be returned along with the administrators contact details where the saver will need to contact them to go through a verification process to identify whether the pension is theirs to be able to add that pension to their dashboard in future. These contact details will be on their dashboard for 30 days after which time it will be withdrawn.
• In some circumstances we'll be unable to match the data a saver submits so nothing will be returned.
   

It’s important to know the pension finder isn’t a database. It doesn’t hold any personal or pensions data but acts more like a switchboard.  Once a saver consents to finding their pensions, the technology fetches and delivers relevant information directly to their own personal dashboard.  

Find Data

‘Find Data’ consists of the personal data provided by the saver to the dashboard and sent by the dashboard's pension finder service to providers, to enable them to search their records for a match.

Some ‘Find Data’ elements will be verified by the dashboard identity service (including first name,last name, date of birth and current address) and some will be self-asserted by the saver (including National Insurance number, previous last name, previous address, email address, mobile number).

Where a provider makes a full match, they will register a unique identifier and savers will have access to the ‘View Data’. Where there is only a ‘partial match’ the provider will send a message with a unique identifier and scheme contact details so the saver can contact the provider to verify if that pension is theirs, and if it is, the provider will update their records.

View Data

‘View Data’ is returned to the dashboard by pension schemes or providers where they have made a match, and is the collective term to describe the administrative data, additional signpost data, value data, and contextual data savers will be shown on their dashboard.

• Administrative data - scheme name, dates of membership, name and contact details of administrator, employer name.
• Additional signpost data - hyperlinks to websites (e.g. the scheme’s website) where an individual can find useful information about the scheme (e.g. costs and charges etc).
• Value data - current fund value, how much pension has been built up to Selected Retirement Age (SRA) if premiums cease, and how much pension will be built up to SRA if premiums continue. We’ll also use the new Actuarial Standard Technical Memorandum 1 (AS TM1) value basis for those calculations, where required, from 1 October 2023. This includes Contextual Information on the value data e.g. illustration date, or type of benefit.

Once a saver consents to finding their pensions, the technology fetches and delivers relevant information directly to their own personal dashboard.

If a scheme is a Group Personal Pension, Group SIPP or Group Stakeholder with Scottish Widows, as provider we’ll provide the connectivity and data to dashboards ecosystem for these schemes.

Scheme trustees are responsible for compliance with Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 and connectivity to dashboards ecosystem. We’re here to support and help guide them through that process and using SW Connectivity. There’s also a checklist available for trustees on TPR website:

Preparing to connect: checklist | The Pensions Regulator.

If your scheme is part of Scottish Widows Master Trust, Mercer Master Trust or an own trust occupational pension scheme, the trustees are responsible for connecting the scheme (depending on the connectivity date for the scheme) and providing data to dashboards. Scottish Widows as an administrator of the schemes to trustees will work with trustees to provide a connectivity solution for trustees.

What you can do at the moment

Even with the delay in connectivity you can still get your paperwork in order. Trustees and employers are advised to do the following:

Trustees and employers should continually review and consider the quality of member data recorded with us to ensure it’s as accurate and up-to-date as possible, and should encourage members to do the same whether active or deferred. Particular attention should be paid to names (for example, does the policy holder use their full forename or a shortened version), postcode, date of birth, National Insurance number and Concurrent Scheme Indicator. The more accurate and up-to-date scheme members’ details are, the more easily we’ll be able to identify them, and send their pension information to their dashboard.
 

Trustees also need to make sure their sign-post information is up-to-date, as it’s part of the data that must be shown to dashboard users e.g: Costs and charges, Implementation Statement and Statement of Investment Principles (where not exempt). For more detail visit: Preparing to connect: checklist | The Pensions Regulator.
 

Decide if you wish to use SW Connectivity for your schemes. If so you will need to agree to adopt our standard match criteria and agree to a supplemental service agreement which sets out our dashboard services and covers any necessary data sharing and privacy requirements.
 

Trustees may also wish to review their Data Protection Notice (DPN) to see if it covers the data sharing within dashboards ecosystem and government bodies to make any necessary changes by their new staging date.

If you want to find out more about the Pensions Dashboards Programme, please visit their website. If you have a Relationship Manager you can also discuss this with them.