Industry commentators have welcomed the confirmation of the reintroduction of the Pensions Bill legislation, including the creation of Pensions Dashboards, the original Bill having failed to make it through parliament before the recent General Election.
Jon Greer, head of retirement policy at Quilter, said he hoped that the Pensions Bill would “now see its way through the relevant processes and make the introduction of Pensions Dashboards appear realistic. For too long Brexit has shoved pension policy to the sideline, so now we have a government with a commanding majority we hope this is just the beginning of some long overdue legislation in this space.”
Helen Morrissey, pension specialist at Royal London, concurred, saying: “We hope that the new government with its comfortable majority can now move full speed ahead [on Pensions Dashboards] and we can make some real progress.”
Anthony Rafferty, managing director of Origo (pictured), said the inclusion of the Pensions Dashboard(s) in the Conservative Party manifesto and the re-introduction of the legislation in the Pensions Bill was an opportunity to “focus on providing pensions information to individuals as soon as possible, by building on the work done to date and putting in place the final elements required to make working dashboards a reality.”
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, described Pension Dashboards as “the aspect of greatest and most wide-reaching importance.
“Millions of individuals have multiple pensions in which they’ve built up benefits over their working lives and dashboards will allow them to see all of their workplace and personal pensions together, online at the touch of a screen. For many their state pension is a significant proportion so it is vital state pensions are also included from as early as possible.”
Rafferty added: “There is a fundamental need for individuals to be able to both find and display in one place their pensions savings information, so they may see where they are in terms of their retirement provision and, if necessary, address their savings situation. Retirement saving is a long-term commitment, so the sooner individuals have the necessary data in front of them, the better it will be for the financial wellbeing of people around the country.
