PDP webinar: progress update report (October 2023)

The connection deadline of 31 October 2026 is the date by which all pension providers and schemes in scope must have connected to the pensions dashboards ecosystem.

Dates for when individual pension providers and schemes should have connected will be set out in guidance. Providers and schemes will be grouped together over different stages in connection windows. This will work in a similar way to the previous staging profile in legislation, in order to stagger connections.

Pension providers and schemes must be able to demonstrate they have had regard to the guidance when making decisions about when they will connect. They will be advised to connect to dashboards according to the timeline.

Engagement on the guidance will begin shortly, which will include the phasing and start of staging. We will be facilitating sessions with the connection forum and other industry groups.

Partners remain committed to allow industry enough time to prepare for connection. The aim is to publish the guidance with at least 12 months’ notice ahead of the first connection dates.

In the meantime, you should continue to prepare your data and select a route to connection.

The legislation requires that pension providers and schemes have regard to guidance. They will be expected to be able to demonstrate how they have considered the guidance and how it has informed decision-making. The regulators will factor this into their approach to compliance and enforcement.

We would strongly encourage schemes and providers to work with their administrators or integrated service provider (ISP) on preparations for connection to help ensure adherence to the dates in guidance.

When guidance is published, PDP will share with industry information across a wide range of channels. Updates will be made available on our website, via webinars, on social media channels and through our engagement channels.

The regulators will be communicating with schemes and providers as well.

We have been encouraged by the feedback we have had from leading pension providers who have stated their intentions to adhere to connection dates in guidance.

Engagement on the guidance will begin shortly, which will include the phasing and start of staging. This will cover FCA-regulated providers of personal pensions as well as occupational pension schemes.

PDP has been focusing on producing a new programme plan as part of its reset activity.

We need to ensure the programme is able to facilitate pension providers and schemes completing connection by 31 October 2026.

The refreshed plan will include prioritising work on preparing for connection, with resourcing dedicated to achieving this goal. The approach is also designed to provide adequate time to take into account the different needs of those providers and schemes who are building their own route to connection versus those who are buying a third-party connection solution.

Once engagement on the guidance has begun, further programme milestones will be shared.

The programme is working closely with over 20 organisations building a direct route to connection. The volunteer participants include integrated service providers (ISPs), administrators and pension providers.

We will work with this group to begin their connection to the central digital architecture before the start of the wider industry connection dates in guidance.

Sufficient time has been built into the new programme plan to support this activity and ensure that ISPs and administrators are ready to begin connecting clients and their schemes in line with the guidance.

If other schemes or pension providers are intending to build a direct route to connection and are not in touch with the programme, it is important they make contact as soon as possible via [email protected].

The revised staging profile is based on updated data, not the data used to inform the staging profile in the previous legislation.

Currently, a specific date for DAP cannot be determined.

It will be when the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is satisfied that the dashboards ecosystem is ready to support widespread use by the general public.

This will be following consultation with the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The amended regulations have not altered this position. The Secretary of State will provide notice at least 6 months ahead of DAP.

Factors will be considered including sufficient levels of coverage, assurance of the safety, security and reliability of the service, and testing of the user experience.

If pension providers and schemes connect in line with the staging profile set out in guidance, then DAP could come before the connection deadline.

The timing of the availability of commercial dashboards (qualifying pensions dashboards services) depends on:

• the government’s legislation to make provision of a dashboard regulated activity
• the finalisation of the Financial Conduct Authority’s regulatory framework and the opening of the authorisations/variation of permissions gateway
• and the finalisation of PDP design standards

To register your interest in joining the user testing group, or one of our delivery groups/forums, please visit our website or email us at [email protected].

When insights are available, PDP will share via our website, newsletters, blogs and other communications activity.

You can sign up to receive regular programme updates, including our FAQs newsletter.

Real users before the dashboards available point (DAP) will need to be invited in, as the service will be in private beta.

We will develop these plans in the user testing group, which will involve industry, as to who to invite and when.

We expect to start with very small numbers when the connection guidance begins. Providers involved may wish to start with their own employee scheme for example, and then broaden out to other groups. Insights will be shared with industry as we begin this work to support operational planning.

This will start with the MoneyHelper dashboard and then begin to include authorised qualifying commercial dashboards once connected.

There are different types of testing.

Conformance and compliance testing is the activity that integrated service providers (ISPs)/administrators, or those building a route to connection, will need to carry out in order to connect to the live environment.

These are referenced in the Code of Connection, and this activity takes place in a pre-production environment before entering into a live environment.

Consumer testing is when we will start testing with real data. This will begin with small numbers when the guidance begins, gradually increasing over time. This testing will allow providers and schemes to test data matching as well as begin to understand user behaviour.

More information on testing can be found in our previous FAQs newsletter on testing.

Compliance with all of the duties set out in legislation, including the PDP standards, is a requirement following connection.

If a pension provider or scheme comes to PDP to connect but encounters challenges during the technical testing and is not able at that point to successfully complete connection, this would not necessarily mean they were non-compliant. They would be non-compliant, however, if they failed to connect by the deadline. Beginning the connection process and starting technical testing with PDP does not trigger the duties – connection does.

The design standards describe the look and feel of dashboards, and set the standard for how information should be displayed.

A draft is available on the PDP website and a further draft will be engaged on in late spring/early summer.

The MoneyHelper dashboard is in development and will be the first dashboard to test with real data. We will share images as soon as possible.

Once the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules have been published, we will begin working with qualifying commercial dashboard providers on connection.

Accuracy of data returned to members via dashboards is a matter of pensions providers’ and schemes’ compliance with their obligations.

However, if a dashboards user has any problems, they may not necessarily know to whom they should address their queries. PDP will build a central queries triaging tool with the aim to help a consumer to get to the right place when they have a complaint or an issue.

Yes, qualifying dashboard providers will be able to provide their dashboard on an app.

The technical architecture is agnostic as to whether dashboards are operated through mobile apps and/or websites.

Pensions are complex and it can be difficult for survey respondents to know details of their pensions.

As part of the WAS process, respondents are asked to consult documentation on pensions, which helps to mitigate self-reporting error.

The secondary analysis of the Wealth and Assets Survey was commissioned to help the programme understand the picture of pension ownership in Great Britain, as there is no administrative data that provides this information.

This information adds to the evidence base that the programme uses to inform decision making.

It is not possible to find out from the survey why more men report having DC pensions than women.

These differences are likely to be a result of labour market and therefore pension participation. There are differences in wages, types of employment (private sector or public sector), whether full-time or part-time, all of which will feed into what types of pensions individuals have.

UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) applies to the movement, processing and storage of personal data.

Dashboards will involve personal information being processed at scale. PDP is creating the pensions dashboards ecosystem, standards and processes with these data protection principles at its heart. It applies data protection by design principles as an integral approach to all ecosystem design processes and components.

A number of this group work with these schemes to prepare for connection.

The group represent those who are building a direct route to connection, as opposed to connecting via a third-party.

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) State Pension are also working with the programme on connecting to the ecosystem directly.

PDP is not currently aware of any public sector pension schemes building a direct route to connection, but anyone considering building should get in touch with us as soon as possible.

PDP is empowered by law to set standards providing the rules and controls facilitating ongoing connection to the dashboards ecosystem.

This includes data standards explaining how pensions data that will be returned on a dashboard must be formatted by pension providers and schemes.

In 2022 and 2023, we held consultations on dashboard standards, and draft versions of the documents were published in late 2022.

Further engagement on standards will take place over winter 2023/24 on refinements, ahead of final publication and approval by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

It is intended that data standards will be made available ahead of other standards, timed to coincide with publication of connection guidance.

PDP has undertaken extensive consultation with the industry and others, and will continue to do so, in order to produce a set of dashboard standards that are deliverable and effective.

The current draft standards are available on the PDP website.

The different categories, such as data standards and technical standards, are set out in legislation and will not be amended by the revised regulations.

Some of the standards do however need further revisions to reflect industry feedback and technical developments.

PDP will provide further updates, when possible, to outline how we will engage with industry on these changes.

These documents will be finalised and will then require the approval of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions ahead of connection starting. We recognise the need to allow industry time to prepare for connection, and will factor this into our plans for publication of the approved standards.

State Pension display standards are not part of PDP’s delivery. It is the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to publish any state pension information standards.

Employers may wish to support their employees with engaging with their pensions by promoting a dashboard or signposting to retirement planning services as many already do.

Pension providers may signpost to dashboards in their member communications, or provide their own dashboard.

Provision of a pensions dashboard will be a regulated activity, so all dashboard providers will need authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). All dashboard providers will have to follow the same FCA conduct rules and the PDP design standards.

Provision of the MoneyHelper dashboard is a statutory requirement for the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) and is part of MaPS’s pensions guidance function.

The MoneyHelper is intended to ensure people can always access a non-commercial public service dashboard and to supplement MaPS’s wider pensions guidance services, not to replace anything else.

A fundamental premise of the dashboards service is that the individual themselves is always in control of access to their information. Only the individual will be able to use the service to find their pensions.

The scope of the service is defined by legislation. PDP is not able to amend the scope.

Pensions dashboards will enable individuals to access most of their pensions information online, securely and all in one place.

Dashboards will connect, and re-connect people with all their pensions, including lost posts. People should be able to see their estimated retirement income across different pension schemes.

Dashboards should contribute to people’s overall financial wellbeing and support better planning for retirement. They will empower users to make more informed decisions about their pensions and have a better understanding of their pensions information.

There is cross-party support for dashboards and the goal of helping people clearly understand and be better engaged with their retirement savings.