Here’s how your business can support the new pensions dashboards

Pensions dashboards will be the one-stop digital platforms where your employees can check their pension information – and following multiple consultations from the government, they are getting closer to reality. But pension schemes need to act fast to deliver on the government’s ambitious timelines, and many will be calling on sponsor employers for help.

What do dashboards mean for your business?

Dashboards will give your employees easy access to their retirement saving plans – promoting financial wellbeing and informed conversations around pensions. In a tight labour market, your pension is helping you attract talent and plan for your workforce needs.

Dashboards will also help consolidate pension pots, creating a more competitive market where you can get better value for money.

However, the Pensions Regulator’s (TPR) new ‘Deadline’ Campaign is urging schemes to pick up the pace in their preparations for connecting to dashboards from August 2023 (the specific date will depend on scheme size).

Most trustees – particularly those for larger schemes where connection timetables are short – are now seeking enhanced service level agreements with their administrators on dashboard delivery. This may mean increased resource is needed from sponsor employers, so engaging with schemes now could prove valuable.

Schemes will also be undertaking significant data cleansing so that they can produce accurate pot values - employers  may need to ensure employee (and ex-employee) data is correct.

More time is needed to resource dashboards in a tight labour market

The CBI has been clear that whilst thereought to be ambitious expectations for rollout, adhering to a such a short timetable will be difficult for the pensions sector – so the government brought forward a new proposal to give 90-days advanced warning of dashboard’s going live to the public. We still fear that this may not be enough notice to create a service that encourages, rather than puts off, people engaging with their dashboard.

The problems are rooted in recruitment. Vacancies for admin roles have increased by 73.9% since the COVID-19 pandemic according to the ONS – and the pensions sector is not immune to these labour market challenges. Pension administrators also be seeking to recruit staff with similar skills and experience to assist with dashboard rollout, limiting the pool of available labour even further.

Instead, a 180-day notice period would allow schemes to build capacity in a controlled, effective and cost managed way.

Whether or not this plea is listened to, Dashboards are clearly coming - and businesses will play a key role in their delivery and success.

What’s next for dashboards?

The Pensions Regulation (TPR) has recently published a useful checklist of the steps Trustees should be taking over the coming months to prepare for dashboards. TPR will also be contacting all pension schemes at least 12 months before their proposed connection deadline.

Speak to Laurence for additional insight, or to be kept in the loop of any new updates.