MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard phase 2 testing begins

The second phase of consumer testing for the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard is now underway. Building on insights from the first phase of testing, this next stage will help us deepen our understanding of how people interact with the dashboard and of the value it provides to them.

We outline here how the second phase will be carried out and what we aim to learn. We also explain how pension providers, schemes and other organisations can help by encouraging their audience to take part.

Phase 1 testing

The first phase of testing has been completed. This initial stage involved testing with participants from the pensions industry alongside a smaller group of consumers. We provide more information about how we conducted this phase in our phase 1 testing blog.

We will be publishing further insights from this first phase shortly, providing more detail on what we learned and how it has helped to inform improvements as we enter the second phase of testing. You can also find out more about our overall testing programme in our published consumer testing approach, and initial insights in our most recent progress update report.

About phase 2

Learning objectives

This first stage of phase 2 will focus on establishing a stable baseline for the service. Our priority is to ensure the dashboard is working reliably and meeting users’ needs in a live testing environment. Once this is established, we plan to move into a later stage focused on iterating and improving the service based on feedback and insights from testing.

Phase 2 will allow us to evaluate the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard and the pension finder service – part of the central digital architecture. Our objectives include assessing whether users can find and understand their pensions information and get further support where they need it. It will help us as we begin to assess how well the intended policy outcomes for pensions dashboards are met and any associated risks, and compliance with the Government Digital Service (GDS) Service Standard.

Alongside consumer testing, we are also planning social research with around 3,000 users to better understand areas such as the accuracy of returned data, the end-to-end user experience and onward actions. This is planned for later in the phase.

User testing process and participants

Testing will include a mix of moderated and unmoderated sessions. Moderated sessions are conducted under the supervision of a researcher, while in unmoderated sessions participants complete the testing independently. Participants will conduct testing on their own device, including mobiles, tablets and desktop computers.

The MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard is being designed to be accessible to as many people as possible. To make this happen, we will conduct testing with people with a wide range of needs, including those with accessibility requirements, low digital skills or confidence, and people who use assistive technology. You can find out more in our accessibility blog.

Building momentum

We are beginning unmoderated testing with relatively small numbers of participants, starting in the hundreds each month and ramping up to the low thousands per month over time in this first stage, which is expected to last 5 months. This gradual scaling will allow us to gather insights while ensuring the dashboards ecosystem remains stable as volumes grow. Detailed plans for the later stage of phase 2 will be agreed nearer the time.

Phase 2 will follow an iterative approach, allowing us to work in an agile way and make incremental improvements as we learn from testing. Feedback from participants, alongside operational and technical insights from across the ecosystem, will help inform these changes. We are implementing a feedback loop for subject matter experts to review the latest evidence, fix issues and identify areas for service improvement.

Being prepared

As testing scales up, pension providers and schemes should be prepared for increasing activity. Higher participant volumes will mean more find requests being received. There may also be an increase in enquiries from participants seeking to resolve potential matches. Operations teams should be ready to manage a gradual rise in demand as testing progresses.

How we will share results

We will circulate insights regularly once we have shared them with our delivery partners across government and regulators, and key stakeholders including the Pensions Dashboards Advisory Group (PDAG). We are in the process of finalising plans for how this will be carried out.

We will publish wider updates on the PDP website and through our regular communication channels such as our stakeholder newsletter and on social media. This will help industry stay informed about the findings from this phase of testing and how they are helping inform iterative improvements.

These insights will be instrumental in getting us to the point when the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard can be made publicly available. This decision will be taken by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions once they are satisfied the dashboard and ecosystem are ready to support widespread public use. Testing with consumers will help provide the necessary assurance that the service is safe, secure and reliable, and meets users’ needs.

As set out in our previous communications, the pensions industry will be given at least 6 months’ notice ahead of the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard becoming publicly available.

How you can help

Over the coming months, we are looking to build up our pool of people interested in testing the dashboard. This is so we can gain valuable insights from a broad range of participants and increase volumes over time.

You can help by inviting your members, customers or (if you're not in the pensions industry) employees to take part. Whether you're a pension provider, employer, charity or other business, inviting your audience will help make sure dashboards work for as many people as possible.

To help you spread the word, you can use our comms toolkit. This contains an email invitation template, shortform messaging, visual assets and general guidance.

At the moment, we are keen to recruit a broad range of customers and scheme members, including those with accessibility needs or low digital skills or confidence. Anyone aged 18 or over who has not started withdrawing all their pensions can take part.

Those interested may sign up to join our research panel. We will email them once a testing opportunity comes up and provide a secure link to the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard.

Testing can be completed in people's own time and on their own device and is likely to take up to an hour. Once they have completed their test and a brief survey, we will send them a £10 voucher as a thank you for their time.

Industry expert testing

If you are a pensions expert or work in the industry and would like to test the dashboard yourself, you can join our expert testing panel. This is a separate panel to the one for consumers, as your knowledge and familiarity with dashboards and pensions means you’ll engage with the service differently.

We look forward to working with you further on developing this phase of the testing process. If you have any questions, please contact us via support.