Last month, Amber Rudd gave the go ahead for the ‘pension dashboard project’, designed to help people bring the different elements of their pension (for instance, state pension and any personal/private pensions) in one place, giving a clear understanding of what their finances will look like after retirement.
This is a policy that has cross-party support, and which will be rolled out over several years – with the first models expected later in 2019. This means that, even allowing for delays in implementations, it’s likely to be rolled out during most of our readers’ working lives.
What is the pension dashboard for?
The whole point of the dashboard is to address the fact that many if not most people will have multiple pension pots throughout their career. As you move between different jobs, you’ll likely be enrolled of a number of different pension schemes – meaning that it’s easy to lose track of what you’ve saved. This isn’t helped by the fact that some pension providers will only keep you updated with online statements, rather than an online portal.
How will it work?
We’re yet to see exactly how it will work, but it’s clear that it’s going to be a large undertaking. That’s because the dozens of different pension providers will all need to plug their data into the dashboard system in order for it to work properly.
This seems likely, given that the plans have backing from major pensions providers.
Aviva, for instance, have said that: “We need the pensions dashboard because we need to bring pensions out of the digital stone age. By doing so, the potential for savers is enormous.”
It’s suggested that there will be multiple different dashboards to choose from, including ones run by businesses in the industry as well as the government. They’ll all work in the same way, accessing all of the information about different pension funds that you may have and then pulling that data together. You’ll need to give consent for them to use your data in this way, and there will be measures in place to protect your personal information.
What information will it provide?
Once the dashboard is up and running, it will give you a few basic details about all of the pension pots that you own, including how much each is currently worth and how to get in contact with the provider for more information. There may be additional details, too, such as what your fund would give you as a monthly income. Â If you currently manage any of your pensions through an online dashboard then it’s likely that the information will be very similar to what you see there, with the key difference that other pension values will be listed too.
We believe that taking control of your pension is one of the crucial steps towards achieving financial security, so it will be great to see this come to life over the coming years and, hopefully, put some power back into the hands of savers.
