Government ‘resets’ pension dashboard programme

Following a National Audit Office report highlighting failings in the project, the government has set out a revised plan

Published: 22 Oct 2024 16:00

The government has formally reset its proposals for a pension dashboard. The project’s overall goal is to provide a secure way for individuals to view a summary of their pensions picture online. The dashboard, which includes information about people’s state pension, is being set up to help people find their lost pension pots.

Cost of the PDP has increased by 23%, from £235m in 2020 to £289m in 2023, while the estimated gross benefits have fallen from £437m in 2022 to £413m in 2023.

The reset means that the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP), which is part of the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), now has a revised delivery plan.

In May, the National Audit Office (NAO) reported that the MaPS’s contract with Capgemini had constraints that hampered its ability to oversee effectively the design and delivery of the digital architecture.

“The architecture was commissioned through individual statements of work allowing it to be delivered iteratively using an agile approach, but the acceptance criteria for these statements were not robust enough to protect the programme effectively against poor quality or non-delivery,” the authors of the NAO’s investigation into the pension dashboards programme report wrote.

The NAO also noted that the digital architecture used by the PDP did not have several components to comply with Cabinet Office, Central Digital and Data Office, and broader government data protection and security standards, and – despite improvements – the governance was not robust enough to enable effective decision-making.

In line with its revised plan, the government said the PDP has begun testing connection journeys with a small number of external organisations to help facilitate wider industry connections. Alongside this, the PDP has published an updated draft Code of Connection, technical standards and data standards to support the pensions industry to prepare for connection. As a result of the PDP’s progress, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority has increased its confidence in the programme’s ability to deliver against their revised plan.

“While it is too early to confirm a launch date for public use, we are taking steps to help the public realise the benefits of using a pensions dashboard at the earliest opportunity. I have directed the PDP to focus its efforts on the connection and launch of the MoneyHelper dashboard service (provided by MaPS), before turning to the work of connecting commercial dashboard services,” said Emma Reynolds, minister for pensions.

Reynolds said that the government was committed to its existing published timetable for the connection of pension schemes and providers to the pensions dashboards ecosystem, which is expected to begin in April 2025, as well as the overall connection deadline of 31 October 2026. Reynolds urged the pensions industry to continue preparations for connection of pension schemes.