View data

 
 
 

What is view data?

View data refers to the data items a pensions provider will need to return to a dashboard if it successfully matches a find request with one or more of its membership records.

View data is split into administrative data and value data. You can find the full list of these items in the PDP Data Usage Guide, but in summary, the data covers these aspects of information:

administrative data

This includes information about the type of scheme the member is in, the dates they were in it, and may also include information about the employer, where applicable.

This data also includes contact information, so that the dashboard user can contact the administration team directly, should they have further queries.

Lastly, this data will also include hyperlinks to where the member can see other useful information on the scheme, such as information on costs and charges, scheme investments and other trustee or governance reports.

value data

The value data answers two main questions:

1. what have I got already? ie the accrued value

2. what might I have at retirement? ie the estimated retirement income

The values that pension providers need to supply will depend on the status of the member in question, and the benefit type.

So, for example, money purchase benefits will present a ‘pot’ and a calculated income that the pot could provide. Whereas non-money purchase benefits will just provide the income figure (and sometimes a fixed a lump sum).

money purchase schemes will need to return:

  • the value of the members accrued rights
  • the annualised income
  • the projected pot value (if held)
  • the annualised income from the projected value. This needs to be calculated by reference to the methodology set out by the FRC in a revised version of AS TM1

non-money purchase schemes will need to provide active members with:

  • the pension payable if pensionable service had ended
  • a projected value of what they would receive if they continue accruing pension to normal pension age (assuming no increase in pensionable salary)

non-money purchase schemes will need to provide deferred members with:

  • a value based on the deferred pension at leaving revalued in line with scheme rules to the current date. Some non-money purchase schemes also provide a fixed lump sum

For more detail on this, and how to deal with more complicated benefit bases, see the FRC consultation document and speak with your advisors.

Timings

It is possible for pension providers to split the information they provide, to allow time to generate the values. If a provider has the information requested, the provider should send it immediately.

For calculated values, providers can send a value calculated in the prior 12 months. It does not need to be a live calculation.

However, if there is no recent value immediately available, providers must supply all of the administrative data immediately, and then ensure that they calculated the data, uploaded it to the system and be ready to return it within an agreed deadline.

In the draft regulations, this deadline is three days for money purchase benefits and ten days for non-money purchase benefits and hybrids.

Steps to connection

at least 12 months prior to onboarding

Perform an audit of the required data items to understand any challenges in providing an accurate pension value to display on dashboards.

Identify what key data is held in a non-digital format. Understand how you will make this data digitally available. For example, if you have previously stored benefit statements online as a complete document, such as a PDF, you will now need to ensure that the required pension values are stored as numbers in your system so that they can be retrieved digitally to share with a dashboard.

Understand how your data cleanse activities for dashboards can complement your other data cleanse projects. Where possible, this may reduce your overall effort in cleansing data. For example, if you are carrying out any benefit rectifications, de-risking exercises, introducing new investment options, consider whether you can also ensure what you are doing can also be delivered as data to dashboards, or improve the general levels of automation to make life easier for administrators.

 
 
at least 6 – 12 months prior to onboarding

Consider your approach to the following questions:

  • will pension values be provided on demand or via a stored value
  • where annual benefit statements are provided, is information stored within a database to allow this value to be returned to dashboards

For money purchase schemes you will need to work with your advisors to amend existing Statutory Money Purchase illustrations in line with the final guidance issued by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). The FRC consultation on changes to the Actuarial Standard Technical Memorandum 1 (AS TM1) closes in May 2022. It focuses on the reporting of estimated retirement income.

Consider if you store the values derived from the annual benefit statements you currently provide to members. Storing values may enable you to more easily provide ‘Value’ data to the dashboard.

For non-money purchase schemes consider if you need to create or amend existing automated calculation routines to provide ‘Value’ data in line with the approach outlined in the DWP consultation.

Work with your advisors to consider if you will provide this value ‘on demand’ or if there is merit in performing an annual revaluation of deferred pensions to enable the return of ‘Value’ data more quickly and easily.

 
 
at least 3-6 months prior to onboarding

Progress any required data cleansing or work required to fill missing or non-digital data items.

Maintain ongoing data validation and audit of key data fields.

You will have agreed how to provide accrued values and estimated retirement income values and confirmed how you will be able to comply with the duties.

 
 
at least 0-3 months prior to onboarding

You are confident in your ability to provide all the required data items.

Any non-digital data has now been loaded on to your core systems and is now digital.

You have an agreed basis for providing calculated values and this has been tested and assessed through the testing of your view functionality prior to your agreed staging date.