Pension dashboards

MaPS is developing a non-commercial dashboard, referred to as the 'ecosystem', and this will be accessible in a retirement planning hub on the MoneyHelper website.

There will also be commercial dashboards operated by other organisations, including pension providers and schemes. A commercial dashboard provider wanting to offer their own dashboard will have to register it as a Qualifying Pensions Dashboard Service (QPDS) with the FCA and will also need to comply with the relevant DWP regulations and MaPS design standards.

Legislation compels pension providers and schemes to provide member data (with consent) to the MaPS dashboard and to commercial dashboards. There will be one ‘Pension Finder’ Service, this is the technology that sends out an instruction to all pension providers and schemes to search for a user’s pension. This technology will then receive information, after consent, and pass this on to pension providers and schemes.

The PDP has made it clear that pensions dashboards will only be made publicly available when all of its requirements, such as user security, and sufficient coverage, have been met, the system has been robustly tested and the right rules and regulations are in place.

To be able to access information on their chosen dashboard, an individual will need to follow a process along the lines of:

• Choose the dashboard they want to use.
• Confirm their identity.
• Give consent to pension providers and schemes to search for information relating to their pensions and to authorise them to provide information to the chosen dashboard.
• Submit a request to find their pensions information. The ‘Pension Finder’ service will then act like a switchboard by sending requests for information to all pension providers and schemes (it won’t actually hold the data).
• Any pension provider or scheme holding information on an individual’s pensions will return a unique Pension identifier (PeI) for each matching pension to the ‘Pension Finder’ service.
• The individual will request information on each of their pensions and the provider or scheme will return the required information in a format that can be added to the individual’s chosen dashboard.  There’s a helpful video describing this process on the PDP website.

A PeI must be generated for both matches and possible matches, in line with MaPS’ standards and registered with their Consent and Authorisation Service (CAS), which manages the customer’s consent and checks they have verified their identify. Registering the PeI ensures that pension information isn’t shared with anyone without permission to view it. Any possible matches will require follow-up action to assess whether a successful match can be made.

Once identity has been verified, a match has been made and a ‘view’ request made, the information displayed will be similar to what’s currently shown on an annual pension statement.  This includes administrative data, signposting to information on costs and charges etc. as well as values and projected pension information. Schemes will have the following deadlines for returning values to the appropriate dashboard:

Defined contribution – immediately where based on a value from a benefit statement in the last 13 months or generated for another purpose using the same methodology in the last 12 months. Where a value has not been generated in this way, value data must be returned within 3 working days.

Defined benefit – immediately where based on a value from a benefit statement in the last 13 months or generated for another purpose using the same methodology in the last 12 months. Where a value has not been generated in this way, value data must be returned within 10 working days.

Hybrid - the same principles apply for providing value data immediately for hybrid schemes. Where data cannot be provided immediately, the deadline depends on the type of benefits held.  Schemes that offer benefits where the benefit value is calculated with reference to both money purchase benefits and non-money purchase benefits will have 10 days to provide value data whereas hybrid schemes that only contain a mixture of different money purchase benefits will have 3 days to provide value data.

Only those pension benefits not yet in payment will be displayed initially, so this excludes annuities and funds in drawdown. 

Decumulation products, savings and investments could be added over time, along with the ability to carry out some transactions such as transfers.

Delegated access will be allowed for regulated financial advisers, MaPS guidance specialists and those considered appropriate by MaPS. The MaPS dashboard will have to offer delegated access but commercial dashboard providers don’t have to do so, meaning this could be a key difference in the offerings of commercial providers. The draft regulations allow an individual to export their dashboard data, which they could then share with their adviser.

Overseeing the request process is a governance register, which will ensure the dashboard ecosystem is kept safe and that the required security and performance standards are met.

Connection deadline 31 October 2026

The final regulations have now laid out the timelines for pension schemes to provide dashboards in these stages:

Once staged, a pension provider or scheme will need to connect into the ecosystem ready to receive find requests, locate pensions and display information. They can do this directly or through an Integrated Servive Provider (ISP) – a third-party service which will send information to the ecosystem on their behalf.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the FCA will regulate the compliance of pension providers and schemes in providing data to individuals via their chosen dashboard. They are both currently working closely with the PDP.

• TPR will regulate registered occupational pension schemes with more than 100 members and public sector pension schemes.
• FCA will regulate personal and stakeholder pension schemes.

Both regulators will have a range of compliance and enforcement actions they can take to penalise non-compliance, ranging from compliance and penalty notices to tribunals. Schemes may be expected to report on things such as the number of find requests received, the number of positive/possible matches, and complaints. A failure to maintain connection would also be a breach of FCA rules, and could result in supervisory or enforcement action.

A QPDS must provide management information to MaPS, TPR or the FCA when requested to do so.  If they don’t comply, the FCA can ultimately de-authorise the provider. Even if they use a third-party ISP, this doesn’t remove any responsibly from the pension provider to remain operationally resilient and to meet the regulatory requirements.

The Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 have now become legislation, and schemes will start to stage from August 2023, although it could be a couple of years before dashboards are available to the public. There are ongoing consultations from the DWP and FCA and secondary legislation setting out how dashboards will operate is expected.

• The FCA published it’s final rules in a Policy Statement in November 2022.
• The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) updates the AS TM1 on Statutory Money Purchase Illustrations. in order to assist providers in applying these terms.
• PDP is considering its approach to user testing and plans to launch a user testing and planning group later this year, to develop and coordinate plans for user testing of the live service once industry staging has begun.
• Further engagement with the  industry took place in 2023 to help shape the new version on data standards.
• PDP is also updating the draft design standards, which the MaPS MoneyHelper dashboard will align to and must be adhered to by other dashboard providers. In March 2024, HM Treasury amended the Regulated Activities Order to make the provision of a pensions dashboard a regulated activity. All dashboard providers will have to follow FCA conduct rules and PDP standards.
• The PDP will provide an update on consumer protection to clearly explain the extent the of obligations of pension providers and schemes, as well as dashboards providers. This will lay out how consumers are being protected through the distributed regulatory framework, and highlight which regulator is responsible for ensuring compliance in terms of organisations’ interactions with dashboards.
  
• A connection hub is now available on the PDP website where schemes and providers can get help with the connection process. In addition, the PDP also plans to run webinars and a programme of engagement to support providers, schemes and other organisations who will be completing the process.
• TPR regularly updates their guidance adding webinars and podcasts to assist schemes.  

Pensions dashboards will go ‘live’ to consumers at a ‘Dashboards Available Point’ (DAP) and this date is likely to be set once the largest pension schemes and State Pension have staged. The Secretary of State must issue a notice to set the DAP at least six months before the specified date. Providers must undertake pre-connection steps, and therefore the rules regarding compliance with the relevant MaPS standards will come into effect three months before the implementation deadline.

More information can be found at: