Pensions Dashboard prototype to be ready by spring 2017
11 leading pension providers will build a Pensions Dashboard prototype by March 2017.
Tomorrow (12 September 2016) at the Aviva Digital Garage, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Kirby, will announce that a prototype of the Pensions Dashboard will be ready by March 2017.
The Treasury has successfully secured agreement from eleven of the largest pension providers - Aviva, Aon, HSBC, LV=, NEST, Now: Pensions, People’s Pension, Royal London, Standard Life, Zurich and Willis Towers Watson - to build the first prototype of its kind in the UK. The ABI has also agreed to manage the pilot project.
The Pensions Dashboard is a platform that lets savers see all their pension pots in one place and will help them to plan for their retirement more effectively.
On average, a person can have 11 employers over their working life, which means that they could end up with almost a dozen private pensions by the time they retire.
At the moment there is no way for people to see the value of all of their pensions in one place and research has shown that over a third of people approaching retirement find it difficult to keep track of their pension pots.
The pensions dashboard aims to also provide a link to “lost” pension pots with previous employers and could help release the £400 million worth of pensions savings that the Department for Work and Pension estimate are currently unclaimed.
It could also prompt people to seek advice as to whether their pension savings are in the best place.
The Economic Secretary, Simon Kirby, said:
Pensions and savings decisions are some of the most important a person will make during their lifetime. The government is determined to make sure people can access the information they need to plan effectively for their future.
Technology, like mobile phone apps, has made day to day banking easier than it’s ever been and it is time for pensions to catch up. Think of a future where you can compare your pension pots with the touch of a button.
The Pensions Dashboard will unlock a huge amount of information that will help people make the best choices for them and I am delighted that eleven of the largest pension providers have agreed to work together to build a working prototype by March 2017.
Aviva’s Chief Digital officer, Andrew Brem, said:
I’m delighted to host the launch of the Pensions Dashboard at Aviva’s Digital Garage. The Pensions Dashboard is a vital tool in increasing engagement with savings and I’m really pleased that we are working on the pilot.
As an industry we need to make it as easy as possible for people to get a view of all their retirement savings in one place to help them take control of their future.
CEO of the People’s Pension, Patrick Heath-Lay, said:
The Pensions Dashboard has the opportunity to change the way the we do pensions, delivering an infrastructure that has the potential to allow people the opportunity to see all their pensions in one place whilst driving greater efficiency within the pensions system. But it must be built first and foremost for savers and have strong, independent, ownership and governance.
It is great that the government and industry are working together to make this a reality. It is crucial that we all make the most of this opportunity and the industry as a whole embraces the dashboard.
The Pensions Dashboard, first announced at Budget 2016, is the latest step in the government’s wider strategy to help people to engage with their pensions earlier rather than nearing the point of retirement.
Earlier this month, the government launched a consultation on the new Pensions Advice Allowance. This allowance, which will come into force from April 2017, will allow people nearing retirement to take up to £500 out of their pension pots tax-free to put towards the cost of financial advice.
This means that an individual can receive advice on all the financial products that contribute towards their retirement income, such as multiple pension pots and other assets like ISA savings.
At tomorrow’s event, ‘Building the Pensions Dashboard – the vision and next steps’, the Economic Secretary will set out the government’s vision for the dashboard as an open, flexible, reliable, FinTech based model.
Aviva’s Chief Digital officer, Andrew Brem, will open the event and David Geale, Director of Policy at the Financial Conduct Authority, Andrew Warwick-Thompson, Executive Director for Regulatory Policy at The Pensions Regulator, and Patrick Heath-Lay, CEO of the People’s Pension, will also speak.
To show how important FinTech is to the modern pensions industry, the event will also include a ‘pitchathon’ where a number of FinTech companies will set out the opportunities they see in getting involved in building a pensions dashboard.