Pensions dashboards ecosystem

Pensions dashboards will show a user their pensions information online, securely and all in one place.

To make this work, multiple parties and technical services need to be connected to the pensions dashboards ecosystem. The ecosystem encompasses dashboards, find and view interfaces, and the central digital architecture.

This diagram is a high-level overview of the ecosystem and is not intended to be a comprehensive illustration of the technical interactions within it.

Figure 1: Overview of the ecosystem

Users begin their journey with dashboards, such as the MoneyHelper dashboard.
They interact with the consent and authorisation service and identity service, providing details to match them to pensions (‘find data’) and verifying their identity. The pension finder service sends ‘find data’ to pension providers, schemes, integrated service providers and State Pension.
If a match is made, pension providers and schemes (including those connected via an integrated service provider) and the Department for Work and Pensions State Pension respond with pensions ‘view data’. This data displayed to the user via the pensions dashboard.

The governance register monitors and controls the components and participants in the ecosystem.

The central digital architecture (CDA)

The central digital architecture (CDA) is the group of elements, that PDP is responsible for. Together, these services facilitate the exchange of pensions data. The is includes the identity service, consent and authorisation service and pensions finder service.

Ecosystem components

Pensions dashboards

Dashboards will enable people who have a UK pension not in payment to be able to view their pensions information. Pension not in payment are those not currently paying out, annuitised or in drawdown.

Dashboards will present information from UK-based pension providers and schemes and the State Pension. This is ‘view’ data, which includes a description of pension type, date payable, and a measure of pension value, such as how much they will receive in retirement. The pension information will only be held while the user is viewing their dashboard. Dashboard providers must be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Pension providers and schemes

Pension providers and schemes match dashboard users to their pensions using ‘find data'. They will decide which user data to use to check against their records to verify if there are any matches. They return found pensions information to display on the dashboard as ‘view data’. This is done by hosting find and view API endpoints and their own internal pension matching functionality. They must ensure their data is accurate and digitally available before connecting to the ecosystem. They may develop their own connection to the ecosystem or use a third party or integrated service provider (ISP) to connect.

Integrated service providers (ISP)

These third-party services can connect pensions information to the ecosystem on behalf of pension providers and schemes. They may provide this service on behalf of multiple providers and schemes.

State Pension

The Department for Work and Pensions State Pension will match users to their State Pension information and return the information to dashboards to display.

Consent and authorisation service

The consent and authorisation service manages user authentication, consents and permissions. It ensures that data is only shared with authorised dashboards and grants citizens access to view their pensions information.

It features an interface for users to enter details to search for pensions, and set their permissions and authorisations for releasing their pensions information to the dashboard. This is passed to the pension finder service. If a matching pension is found, the consent and authorisation service manages access to the information in line with the authorisation policies set by the user. No pension information is stored.

Identity service

The identity service verifies a user's claimed identity, proving the user is who they say they are so they can find their pensions. PDP has chosen GOV.UK One Login as the identity service provider.

Users provide evidence to the service which is checked against authoritative sources, such as government-held passport and driving licence details, or credit details and housing records. Additional information like address, National Insurance number, email, and phone number may be provided but not necessarily validated by the identity service. It also securely manages authentication credentials.

Find out more about GOV.UK as the identity service provider.

Pension finder service

The pension finder service sends out instructions to pension providers, schemes and the State Pension to search for a user’s pensions information. This is called a ‘find request’. The pension finder service has no user interface and uses data from the consent and authorisation service to send the request. When a pension is found, the pension provider, schemes and the State Pension will register this pension with the consent and authorisation service, making the pensions data available to the user for viewing at the dashboard.

Governance register

The governance register supports the monitoring and reporting of compliance and security across the ecosystem. It consists of both organisational processes and IT components, tracking all ecosystem components and their usage. This allows reporting, audits and the traceability of transactions. It governs ecosystem participation, controlling who the valid participants are and allowing access to be removed if a participant is operating incorrectly.

An introduction to the pensions dashboards ecosystem

Find and view interfaces

The ecosystem enables the exchange of data between pension providers and schemes and dashboards, allowing users to view their pensions information online in a clear and simple way.

This video contains out of date information about verifying users addresses. Find out more about the identity service.