The long-awaited pensions dashboard is now unlikely to become a reality until the end of 2026, the government said on Thursday.
In a statement, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Pensions Laura Trott said more time is needed to deliver this “complex build” and for the pensions industry “to help facilitate the successful connection of a wide range of different IT systems to the dashboard digital architecture.”
In recognition of this, the government has set a new mandatory date by which pension providers must be connected to pensions dashboards as 31 October 2026.
Trott said the 2026 deadline was not the point at which dashboards will be accessible to the public – the Dashboards Available Point – as this could be earlier.
She said: “Rather than setting out the entire staging timeline in legislation, we will instead set this out in guidance which we will collaborate on with industry this year. This will give the Pensions Dashboards Programme the flexibility it needs to ensure this complex project is completed effectively.”
Trott added that the Government remains committed to making pensions dashboards a reality and is ambitious about their delivery.
“I am confident that this re-appraised approach will enable us to make significant progress on delivering dashboards safely and securely,” she said.
Anthony Rafferty, CEO of Origo, said despite the longer time frame to mandatory connection, providers should be ensuring their data preparation is complete and that their dashboard connection solution is in place.
“Earlier connection will ensure not only that individual providers are ready for their expected live date but also is essential for testing of the full dashboard ecosystem. With the industry predicted to receive millions of requests for pensions data when dashboards are fully live, it is important providers are connected to the dashboard via a robust, comprehensive and scalable service.
“It must also handle all their pension dashboard processing requirements securely and compliantly and accommodate any standards revisions that come from PDP. What the industry needs to avoid, and the larger providers in particular, is capacity crunch in the run up to both the Dashboards Available Point and the mandatory deadline.
“The Pension Dashboard is a crucial project for individual pension savers and financial wellbeing within the UK. It is essential it is done right and will be a prize worth the wait.”
Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, welcomed the announcement of a firm connection date, which she said would give schemes and members confidence that the pensions dashboard ecosystem works.
Smith said: “Previously connecting dates for pension providers and schemes were set out in legislation by scheme size and type. These will be removed. We look forward to seeing more details on how the staging dates set out in the guidance will work and be managed by the pension dashboard programme to ensure that scheme connection points are evenly spread to avoid the risk of being left until the last minute of 31 October 2026, which could easily lead to a capacity crunch and overwhelm the pension dashboard ecosystem.”
However, AJ Bell head of retirement policy Tom Selby called the delay “disappointing”.
“The industry and government have had years to prepare for pensions dashboards. The decision to push mandatory connection to dashboards beyond the next general election is hugely disappointing and people will understandably now question whether they will ever be created at all. Having been led up the dashboards hill multiple times by the government, savers and the pensions industry are now back at the bottom trying to figure out what the future may hold.”
Research suggests that the total value of ‘lost’ pension pots stands at over £26 billion and Selby said simplifying the process of finding these pots could be a game-changer for savers.
Selby continued: “Over time, dashboards could also act as a valuable engagement tool – but only if they are ever actually created in the first place.
“AJ Bell has always said that the priority is ensuring dashboards are safe and useful for UK savers, with as many people’s pensions as possible connected to the service. Rushing to launch dashboards without proper testing or with gaping holes in the data would clearly be foolish, but this news is still hugely disappointing.”
Selby also warned that the decision to potentially make dashboards available to the public before schemes are required by law to connect was a “half-baked approach” that could skew retirees’ decisions.
He added: “The major risk of this half-baked approach is that people will end up making retirement decisions based on partial information which they might not otherwise have made if they had a full picture of all their pension pots. Given how important trust will be if and when dashboards are launched, and how fragile consumer trust in pensions more generally can be, we would urge extreme caution in going down this road. At the very least, any decision to launch partial dashboards needs to be supported by robust consumer testing and clear warnings about the limitations of the data available.
“Savers and providers now need absolute, cast-iron clarity over the dashboards timeline. Any more flip-flopping over the timetable or structure of the reforms could cause fatal damage to confidence in the project.”
