Progress update report webinar: May 2025

Joe Stacey

Hello and welcome to this afternoon's webinar. My name is Joe Stacy and I am one of the senior industry engagement managers on the programme.

I'm going to be your host today and it's a real pleasure to see so many people attending.

I'm also pleased to be joined today by Chris Curry, our programme Principal and Adam Gifford, the Senior Policy and Proposition Lead for MoneyHelper dashboard. So,as you will hopefully have seen last Thursday, we published our latest biannual update on progress.

And today we will go over the updates from the report across a variety of programme areas, so this will include - we'll talk about progress with connection of our cohort of industry participants.

And so those are those connecting directly to the dashboard ecosystem. And we'll talk about schemes and provider connection more widely. We'll also be covering standards for pension providers and schemes, an update on the development of the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard and plans for consumer testing, discovery work around private sector dashboards and how we have been engaging with the pensions industry.

Just to note that we will be recording this session and we will publish the recording in the slide deck on the programme website. If you have any questions, please submit them into the Q&A tool hear in Teams. So not in the chat bar, but in the Q&A tool and we'll try and get to as many of them as we can directly after the presentations. If there are any questions that we don't manage to get to all that require further consultation, we will take them away.

And we will subsequently publish a full set of Q&A along with the recording and slides on our website. Right then - that's it from me. So, I'm now going to pass over to Chris for a general update.

Chris Curry

Yeah. Thanks very much, Joe. Can I just check actually if people can see the slides on the screen because I can't see the slides at the moment. So just in case it's just me, I will carry on anyway, but just for the team in the background, if not maybe to get the slides on would be really helpful.

So I'm going to start by talking through an update on the connection where we are on the pensions dashboards ecosystem. So we've been working very closely with around 20 industry participants who are made-up of pension providers and schemes, third-party administrators, and untegrated service providers.

OK. Hopefully I think you can now start to see the slides on the screen. Brilliant. Thank you for bearing with us.

So this cohort the organisation has been working very closely with are the ones who are building a direct route into the connection with the dashboards ecosystem, and these are likely to be connecting the vast majority.

Of pension scheme memberships, once the scheme start connecting themselves through these connection points.

And I'm very pleased to say that all of the industry participants have begun their connection journeys and are at varying stages of the process going through now. Some of these things, hopefully you would have seen already. So also very delighted to say that the first 4 participants have now completed the final stages of testing and have successfully connected to the dashboard ecosystem. So this opens the way for pension providers and schemes to be connected and some of them have already started to connect, which is brilliant.

Of the remainder, so those that have those other 16 or so organisations, the very latest position as of today, and I should say, is changing very frequently. But the latest position as of today is that a further 6 have now completed integration testing with several others currently in the process or close to it. Integration testing is probably the most technical and the most demanding part of the process. So it really is great that we've got so many – over half – of the voluntary participants now through that process and out the other side.

But as I mentioned, this position is changing week by week, day by day, and we will endeavour to keep people up to date with what's happening in that space.

So as the first few organisations move through that process, we were carefully monitoring their progress before inviting everyone else to get started.

And this has been actually very important for us because this has allowed us to test and refine the process for connection and to generate valuable insights for those organisations who are going to be connecting slightly later.

So we've been continuously learning from the experiences of our industry participants as they go through this journey and the feedback we've received as well as our practical experiences have been very helpful in identifying issues and making improvements as we go through that process.

To give some examples based on the insights we've gained, we've made improvements to the standards and we've also updated our guidance and supporting documentation as well as the backstage processes, which is helping to ensure a smoother connection journey for those other organisations now going through connection.

So over the first few months of 2025, our primary focus as you've been able to tell I think has been on continuing connection with our industry participants in order to facilitate connection with the wider industry in line with guidance. And that I think takes me neatly on to the wider industry connection to the dashboard ecosystem.

So as I'm sure you will all know, all pension providers and schemes in scope for dashboards are required under the legislation to connect to the dashboard ecosystem by the 31 October 2026.

Now we continue to work towards the connection table sets timetable set out in guidance by DWP and this was published just over a year ago in March 2024. The first of the dates in DWP guidance, as I'm sure everyone is aware of, was reached on the 30 of April 2025.

On the 17t April, the first pension provider completed their connection to the dashboard ecosystem. So in line with the DWP staging timetable and more providers and schemes have since connected in April and others are registered and are currently in the pipeline for connection soon. So it's really an ongoing process of connection with those providers and schemes.

You might also recall that while the connect by dates DWP’s connection guidance are not statutory, providers and schemes are required to have regard to the guidance. In other words, they need to show or to demonstrate how they've considered the guidance when making decisions or taking actions in relating to preparing to connect to dashboards.

PDP is working with all of its industry participants to complete their connection journeys as soon as possible. This is, as you may imagine, a complex process involving different types of organisations and as we anticipated in December and confirmed in this latest progress update report published last week, a number of industry participants have not yet completed their connection journeys.

However, this is not at the moment a cause for concern, so the regulators are committed to taking a pragmatic approach to compliance and are focused on member outcomes, so they will consider a range of factors before deciding whether to take regulatory action, including the nature and scale of any potential issues and the impact on members and the number of members affected.

But I want to make very clear that if providers and schemes have appointed a connection provider which is not yet able to connect them in line with their date in guidance, they can be reassured that they do not need to reconsider their route to connection and it remains the regulator's position at a current time there'll be no regulatory intervention if a provider or scheme is unable to connect in line with guidance solely because they're third-party connector is an industry participant, which is yet to connect. I think that's a very important point.

So here at the team at PDP, we will continue to work very closely with industry participant participants to schedule their connection slots, to reschedule them if things become necessary and we are extremely confident that all providers and schemes will be able to connect far in advance of the mandatory connection deadline of the 31 October 2026.

So next I'd like to cover the standards for pension providers and schemes in an area where we've also been working on over the past few months. And as I'm sure you're aware, the standards are the sets of rules and controls for pension providers and schemes to connect and remain connected to the pensions dashboards ecosystem, so that standards includes data, technical and reporting standards, as well as the code of connection which sets out the requirements to connect and stay connected, ensuring all ecosystem participants are managed appropriately and securely.

Then back in March, the standards for pension providers and schemes were approved by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland, and this approval was the final stage in enabling us to publish these standards as a legally binding set of documents following consultation, development and considerable iteration over time. And I'd like to thank everybody who's taken part in that process for all their feedback which has helped improve the standards as we've been through this process.

So all providers and schemes in scope for dashboards must comply with the approved standards, which you can find if you would like to look at them on the standards page of the PDP website and each version is named 2.0. So for example, data standards versions 2.0. So that's how you can make sure you're looking at the latest version.

In future, of course, standards may need to be updated, for example to reflect any further legislative changes any industry needs, any regulatory changes, or potentially technological advancements.

As we go through the next few months, but before any changes are made, we will make we will work with industry to understand the impact of any changes and consider the appropriate lead times for implementation before any further releases are published.

There is one other area set of standards, so the standards for private sector dashboard operators, including design standards, which are being developed separately and they will be published separately and there is a helpful short video which explains the position on standards included in the progress update report on our website.

If you'd like further information, please do have a look there.

So talking about dashboards, I'm now going to move on to talk about dashboard development and discovery in the private sector dashboard space. So again, you may recall that last October the then Minister for Pensions confirms the government's commitment to delivering pensions dashboard and announce that the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard being developed by colleagues at the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) will be made available to the public before private sector dashboards are launched.

And to tell you a little bit more about the MoneyHelper pensions dashboard, I'd like to hand over to Adam Gifford.

Adam, over to you.

Adam Gifford

Thanks, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. So unsurprisingly, our aim for the MoneyHelper dashboard is to be for it to be made available to the public at the earliest possible point and therefore the prioritisation of our dashboard should help enable this. Now clearly it'll generate valuable insights into user behaviour which we're instrumental in shaping future iterations of dashboards. It'll also help ensure greater confidence in operational delivery, security and consumer protection.

The MoneyHelper pensions dashboard will sit on the MoneyHelper website and will follow the same look and feel, accessibility and design principles as the wider site. Now we've already shared a prototype with industry to help demonstrate what the dashboard will look like in its functionality. I will caveat and say that what we sort of move into testing with in the summer may not be exactly as we've shown, but it will be something that is quite similar and will be then iterating and improving that all the way through testing. And obviously we've been receiving feedback from yourselves in industry in terms of what we've shared and we have been reviewing that and also looking at how we might make changes to better improve the quality of the service.

In terms of our build and our progress towards being ready for testing, we are progressing well and we've already proven our connection into the CDA, which is a really important step in being ready for consumer testing starting in the summer and we're now starting to make some of the final adjustments to the look and feel of what we want to have in place for the summer.

Now the decision for when our dashboard will be publicly available will be informed by several factors.

That's just whether the service is safe, secure and reliable, and that will be monitored by DWP maps and regulators. And I'm going to hand back to Chris to talk a little bit more about private sector dashboards and our plans for those.

Chris Curry

Thanks very much, Adam. It's great to hear such positive progress on the MoneyHelper pensions dashboard as well. I think it really is going to be an exciting summer, but a little bit more on that in a moment. So I'm just going to bring you all up to speed with the work that we are undertaking at the moment around private sector dashboards. And I think as is clear from the ministerial statement back in October, the government remains committed to private sector dashboards and ensuring people can access their pensions information in the way that works best for them.

So over the past few months, we've been working very closely with potential dashboard providers, the Department for Work and Pensions and the regulators on developing a pathway for development and implementation of dashboards. So, an internal workshop has been held with the delivery partners. So, for example from the DWP and the FCA as well as PDP and in February we held two industry round tables with potential commercial dashboard providers and the findings from all of these sessions help to inform to pre-discovery sessions which we then held in March.

So following those sessions, we're now consolidating feedback and insights and we'll be looking at sharing findings and arranging future engagements in due course, in order so we can share information around that pathway because the pathway for commercial dashboards will also be informed by progress with connection to the dashboards ecosystem, which at the moment is very much our focus. I think it's also worth highlighting that in November last year the FCA published its rules around qualifying pensions dashboard services or QPDS firms and this regulatory framework will make sure firms providing a pensions dashboard do not introduce or amplify the potential for consumer harm.

And these rules can be found on the FCA website, so it's very much a case of watch this space for private sector pensions dashboards. More information will be forthcoming later this year.

I mentioned it's going to be a very exciting summer and I'm now going to hand back over to Adam to talk through one of the main activities we're going to be undertaking, which is the consumer testing. So Adam, over to you.

Adam Gifford

Thanks, Chris. So clearly a fundamental part of ensuring a reliable user experience is the user testing that we're going to be carrying out from the summer onwards. I'd like to give you a bit of an update on how we plan to test the service with our users so later this year we'll be undertaking this all important testing with real individuals using the service to see real data about their pensions. And this is crucial in order to demonstrate that the end-to-end user experience of the service is both positive, safe and that the service meets our user's needs.

I'll use a research and testing with prototypes as already informed and will continue to inform the ongoing design and development of the dashboard service and provide assurance that dashboard standards are fit for purpose. However, testing with real users during the actual data will ensure that the dashboard service to delivering a positive user experience for our consumers and this type of testing can be carried out at scale and provides insights on, to give the examples, user behaviours, successful data matching, as well as also some of the queries and yeah, processes that providers might need in place to support users that come through.

And we'll planning to begin a programme of testing from the summer and that testing will take place in three steps and there's a bit of a change from what we consulted on previously. So the first step from summer 2025, we're referring to as industry testing now, we anticipate this beginning slightly ahead of the consumer testing and this is really a first step in building confidence that the data is coming through accurately.

This should be limited initially to the schemes participating in phase one, and then we'll broaden that out over time as coverage and confidence in the service builds.

Then the first phase, which we did consult on earlier this year, for the summer 2025 will be moderated testing. We’ll be recruiting individuals who are workplace pension scheme staff members and research panel members and we'll be taking them through and watching their progress as they go through the service first hand to really get that rich insights from the user in terms of what's working and what's not working.

Then the second phase, which we anticipate beginning from the autumn, will be when we move into what we're calling unmoderated testing. So that is really testing at scale where we'll be sending people a link out to the service and then they'll be able to access as they would do as if it was out there and we'll be then tracking their progress in the background to see again, you know what's working, what can we see other problems and pain points in the journey. And we'll be looking to recruit participants from a panel which we're going to build up through reaching out to pension providers and schemes over the period of testing.

Now we've consulted with industry to see how we collaborate and bring their scheme members to test with the MoneyHelper dashboard, and then we've also been processing all of that rich feedback that we received towards the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. And we're planning to publish a baseline user testing plan in the coming weeks. And we're really in the final stages of just taking that through internal governance to make sure that it's ready and could be published. So that should be with you soon.

And then lastly, we'll continue to collaborate with industry testing.

Throughout, sorry, we'll continue to collaborate with industry throughout the testing period, beginning with scheme specific contributions to moderated sessions to understand their response and then obviously broaden that out with more regular thematic reporting and findings as we move through that second phase at scale.

That's a little bit about the plans for consumer testing and now we're going to pass back over to Joe, I think.

Joe Stacey

Hi, thank you, Adam. Thank you, Chris. Yeah. So we'll, we'll that's the end of the presentation. So we're going to move on to a series of Q&A now and we'll pick questions up from the Q&A and put them in. So I would suggest if you could drop any questions you may have into the Q&A chat and we'll pick it up that way. I'll pose the questions to either Chris or Adam and we'll provide you with an answer. And as I said, if we don't get through to everything, we will publish the full Q&A and answers, so we'll take away if anything, we need to take away. Yeah, we will update it on our website afterwards.

So I've got a question for Adam to begin with. How do administrators and schemes get involved in the consumer testing later this year?

Adam Gifford

Initially, we're doing some sort of proactive reaching out to some of the schemes and providers that have connected earlier because obviously we know that they are potentially more able to support in the early stages and as we progress towards the end of the first phase and into the second phase, we'll be looking to broaden that out to schemes that do want to get involved. So we'll be providing a few more details in the coming weeks and months about how you can do that and what the process will be.

So yeah, stay tuned and keep looking to PDP’s website for further information and obviously the progress updates be a good opportunities for us to provide more details about how you can get involved in those latter phases.

Joe Stacey

Great. Thank you, Adam.

I'll put this to Chris, although it could be that both of you want to chip in. In terms of going live and the criteria for going live in terms of being safe and secure, does the dashboard available point apply to the MoneyHelper dashboard and does that include the 6 months’ notice and will that be given?

So I can start with Chris. I think if that's OK.

Chris Curry

Yeah, sure. So of course, the dashboard's available point is. Is defined in legislation as the date that private sector dash dashboards can be made available to the general public. But of course that was put into legislation before the announcement that I talked about last October, where it was decided that for all the reasons that Adam pointed out, the MoneyHelper pensions dashboard would go first. And as Adam has already also pointed out, we don't have a particular date for when that is likely to be, because it will depend on a number of different factors and maybe I'll get Adam talk about that a little bit more. But I think in general from the discussions that I've had with industry and discussions we're having with the government, I mean, it's really clear that there needs to be a sufficient notice period that's made available to the industry before the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard is made available to the public in order for the industry to be able to do their own preparation and to get ready for what's likely to be the follow up from people using pensions dashboards. So there is a very strong awareness within government and the government remains committed to providing industry with sufficient notice in order to make clear when the MoneyHelper dashboard is coming down the road. And I think I would expect that to be in the region of 6 months as a minimum. But Adam, maybe if you wanted to pick up anything else.

Adam Gifford

Yeah, I mean, I could talk a little bit, I guess just really briefly in terms of some of the factors and that we'll consider. So from our perspective, one of the key inputs will be our service assessment, which will be taking place towards the end of our testing period and that will provide us a really strong foundation for knowing or proving that the service is performing well for users outside of the [service standard assessment] SSA and the criteria that we've got to meet for that, which ensures that the service not only performs is meeting user needs, but is also safe and secure and we've also got a good support model set up for consumers outside of that. There's a few other factors that are being considered and thought about. So things like the coverage of schemes in terms of making sure that there's, you know, good coverage of data for providers, for consumers, that they're going to have a good experience. And then also looking at some of the consumer outcomes as well. So what do people go on to do next? I was thinking about some of the broader implications and also the industry readiness as well, I think will also be a key factor that plays into that decision.

Joe Stacey

Thank you.

OK, so a question to Chris, switching over to thinking about connection plans for schemes. So we have a scheme here that is expected to connect by the end of October this year.

There's sort of flagging that their ISP, their industry participant, is not connected yet, and their question is, are they still going to be held to their specific expected date? Now this is partly a regulator-ish question. So there may be some regulatory type questions we don't pick up on this call and we'll revert back with ourselves and get input from the regulators. But Chris, did you want to have a go at this one and if we need to add anything further we can.

Chris Curry

Yeah, absolutely. So I think as I pointed out, there is a kind of an understanding at the moment that where the voluntary participant is not connected and the guidance date is already passed that the regulator is taking a view on that that's understandable. But I think what is important is that schemes are ready to connect as soon as they are able to do so.

Because I think as is set out in legislation, schemes and providers have to have regard to the connect by dates in guidance. So I think probably the best thing to do would be to talk to your ISP to understand where they are on the journey and when they think they will be connected. I think we would certainly expect with all of those that we're currently working with that they should be connected by the time we get to the 31 October. But obviously we would need to do a little bit of work with them as well in order to complete your own individual connection. So I think being in touch with your ISP to understand where they are is going to be very important. I think if you're not able to meet that date and it's not for a reason because your ISP is not connected, then you may consider getting in touch with us. We have a scheme connection notification on our website that if you want to connect either more than 30 days before your guidance date or 30 days after your guidance date. If it's for a reason other than a VP connection then you can get in touch with us to let us know and we can talk to you through that. I think the main the main thing is though the regulatory deadline is 31 October 2026.

But you do have to have regard to the guidance if your guidance date is 31October 2025 and so you need to be documenting what it is that you're doing and what happens beyond that date as well. But I would be, I would expect there to be very little reason from the voluntary participant side and from the connection into the architecture side why you wouldn't be able to connect by 31 October 2025.

Joe Stacey

All right. Thank you. OK, I'm going to move on over to user testing again, Adam.

One of the questions is could you expand a little bit more on industry testing of the MoneyHelper dashboard and what the purpose of that is.

Adam Gifford

Yeah, happy to. So the sort of primary in if you like of the industry testing is really to provide a vehicle for us to try and get more confidence about the data that's coming through in the accuracy of that.

We know that obviously industry professionals are much better able to assess whether the data is coming through aligns either to admin consoles, that they're responsible for supporting data into, or and/or looking at their own statements and making sure that the sort of data aligns to those. It'll be much more difficult for us to glean those insights from the front end uses that we're interacting with, so that's, I guess, kind of the main purpose. There's some secondary benefits to that as well for industry. So it allow them an opportunity to kind of see the service first hand and to also think about those onward journeys into their own admin platforms and how they might help users that need to go on and speak to their schemes. And then laterally probably more towards the end of the towards the end of the testing also provides a vehicle for us to receive.

Sort of feedback as a sort of critical friend from the industry about stuff that again, they might be slightly more informed about and able to articulate then perhaps some of our end users, so I guess those are kind of the three principal areas through which we think that that industry testing will be of real benefit both to us and probably to industry as well.

Joe Stacey

Thanks, Adam. And during moderated consumer testing, do you think that well, there's a question here about what sort of support might providers be expected to provide for the industry and others during moderated consumer testing?

Adam Gifford

So I guess from our perspective, we're expecting schemes to be set up to provide their users or their members, I guess, with support. So once requests start coming through the ecosystem, we are expecting providers to be set up to handle any support request they might get. So, for example, if somebody needs to resolve a partial match, it should be on hand to be able to support them through that process as they you know as they would do if it was, if we were at public launch. And then also if there are queries and questions again that are coming through about the information that is being shown on a dashboard than we do expect providers to have processes and controls and resources available to support those queries. But obviously I think one of the key things that we'll be wanting to work and sort of communicate closely with industry on is when those volumes might come through, what that kind of looks like and therefore how much support might they need to anticipate and provide as we get through that process. And certainly, we'll be sharing insights about what we're seeing, which will also help providers to sort of shape their processes in a better manner, as we progress through testing.

Joe Stacey

Thanks, Adam. And in terms of unmoderated testing and I appreciate we've yet to publish the outlined testing strategy. So there will be more information about our approach in there and I don't want to preempt any of that. But do you envisage that as part of unmoderated testing, will it include an onward member journeys?

And if so, do schemes need to prepare their dashboard member support by autumn 2025?

Adam Gifford

Yes, I think that's on a similar vein. So, and I guess there's two parts to sort of on with journeys, there's onward journey that a user might go on by visiting our dashboard and therefore they might then want some additional support and guidance about what to do next in terms of making sense of that information. Now that could be that they'll go on to use some of the resources that we'll be making available and we'll be making some of those available iteratively as we get towards the latter end of testing. That might be things like they've got a question about what the State Pension is and how that works for example.

Equally, there will clearly be a place for providing schemes to support their members where they've got questions about that data, specifically around, as already mentioned, where they've got, you know, things they need to resolve, such as whether there's a partial match. So yeah, we'd absolutely expect providers to be set up to start providing that support once we get into testing.

Joe Stacey

Brilliant. Thank you. Thank you, Adam. Chris, I'll turn to you, if I may.

And as I'm sure you'll be aware that we've seen incidents, cyber security incidents, coming up in the news lately. How can schemes and providers and members be assured that the pensions dashboards ecosystem is safe and secure?

Chris Curry

Yeah. So as you say, it's a very, very topical.

Very topical question. Even today we've seen more especially in central government of things like that happening, which is always a concern. But it's something that we have always taken incredibly seriously as part of the Pensions Dashboards Programme and going through it. And one of the key things to point out of course is that the information that's stored in the central digital architecture is very limited. So in fact, it doesn't actually have any information at all about the find data provided by the individuals, for example, or any pensions.

Information that's provided by the providers and schemes, so it really is just a transmission rather than a storage function as part of that. And of course the CDA is also going to be hosted, is currently being hosted by part of the Money and Pension Service. And MaPS as a whole follows out the approach to cybersecurity as in the principles of the National Cybersecurity Centre. So this is a secure by design philosophy that ensures that security is integrated into every phase of what we've been doing as we go through. And it's been very important that we've been doing that.

So the security standards ensure the appropriate level of security and we follow the National Cyber Security Centre standards and best practise at all levels in doing that and these detail the technical authentication requirements for communication between parties within the ecosystem, which is that transmission bit which I think is the important element, and the encryption requirements fpr data in transit across the ecosystem, and the requirements for security testing interfaces to the ecosystem so.

It's a really important area for us and all the technology side. We're doing all that we can. I think to make it as secure, as secure as possible.

Of course, there's also the possibility of scams and fraud, and not just hacking as part of that. And in that space we're working very closely with, with the FCA and in particular around kind of what happens on pensions, dashboards themselves. And that's why the rules and the design standards around pensions dashboards are going to be very important. And that's why provision of services is going to be an FCA regulated activity. It's really important that we do all we can to protect individuals and their data.

Joe Stacey

Brilliant. Thank you, Chris.

Moving over to the MoneyHelper dashboard.

And we get quite a lot of questions, Adam, about what will the dashboard look like or when will we be able to see what the dashboard looks like. I know you mentioned there was previously some sharing and there have been some demos of the MoneyHelper dashboard before. Is that is that is that going to be coming up again soon? Will people be able to see what the dashboard looks like?

Adam Gifford

Yes, as we progress and get closer and closer to consumer testing, I think we will look to do another kind of round of updates to provide industry with a better understanding of what we're actually going to be testing with. I don't have confirmed dates before that yet. As I say, the team are working hard on the build to make sure that everything is in place when it needs to be. So, we're trying not to disrupt them too much at this moment in time, but certainly we would like to provide a bit of information, to a bit more clarity as we get closer to the point of starting that testing. So yeah, anticipate some further interaction around that in in the coming weeks.

Joe Stacey

OK. Thank you, Adam.

Going into a bit of detail here in terms of matching, Chris, maybe you could pick this one up for us. So if a user does not enter their National Insurance number when they go onto the dashboard as part of the find and view process. Will they still be able to see their State Pension information?

Chris Curry

Yeah. So it it's a very interesting question. When we get asked a lot, I think in this particular space. And so the inclusion of a National Insurance number is not a prerequisite for seeing state pension information, but it's not something that we are requiring as something that has to be input as what we're doing. But it is likely if people do have a National Insurance number to give them a really increased likelihood of being able to find their matched pensions.

And so although it's not something that that is necessary, it's something we'll be prompting very heavily. And I think that that's something we'll be testing through the design, and have already tested in some of the early design stages as well to encourage as many people as possible to to get that National Insurance number as part of it because it will definitely increase the chances of matching, not just with the State Pension but with private pensions as well.

Joe Stacey

Thank you, Chris. And then Adam, in terms of volumes, you mentioned in your presentation that we're expecting the volumes for consumer testing to be a similar order to what we set out in our draught proposals.

Is it possible to get an explanation or a rationale for for those kinds of volumes? I think the person that's asked the question has highlighted that they would expect volumes to spike significantly at launch, particularly anticipating the ‘Martin Lewis effect’. Yet, the volumes we're planning for consumer testing do not hit anything like those kind of peak volumes that you might get when the service is live. So what's the rationale for the consumer testing numbers?

Adam Gifford

Yeah, so probably useful to distinguish between what we're trying to achieve with the consumer testing, which is really focused on people's experience of using the service, whether it's positive, whether they can comprehend the information that we're being shared, whether they can get through the end-to-end journey without any particular issues. So those are kind of like the core aims of what we're trying to achieve through industry or through the consumer testing. When we're talking about testing at scale, that's more around what we'd call sort of ‘performance and load testing’, which is slightly different and it doesn't need necessary for this call people to go through in the way that we do here.

I think there's two different things at play here. One is about building confidence that the service is working well for users and that they can understand the information well and that they're having an all-round positive experience, not just in terms of their interaction directly with the Money and Pensions Service, but then there's onward journey they might go on to take into industry and into things like the One Login service.

And then there's kind of the scalability point, which I think can be done in a slightly different manner and doesn't necessarily require you know, thousands and thousands of people to have gone through the service to prove that point.

Joe Stacey

Thank you, Adam.

And then in terms of preparing for consumer testing, obviously going back to your update on connection, Chris and the need to get our VPs through the connection journey and as many schemes and providers connected as possible in support of consumer testing. Someone's asked when do you expect all 20 VPs to have connected?

Chris Curry

I mean, that's a difficult one to answer because obviously one of the things we're doing at the moment is testing and you never know what the outcome of testing is going to be until you've tested.

So as I said, in the update we started with, we actually started the connection process last summer. So we've been working through this for quite a while, quite a long time. I think we, as mentioned, we started to see successful connecting. We're seeing more of the voluntary participants getting further and further through the process each week as we get through. And, as I mentioned, over half are now through the probably the most technical and challenging part of the process of the integration testing and doing that.

So, I'm not able to put a specific date on when we expect all of them to have finished that connection. What I will say is wewill have had a number more through by the time we get to start the testing in the summer in order to help with the volumes, of the coverage of the of the memberships that we're likely to see as part of that.

And I think if I had to hazard a guess, I'd expect them all to finish their journeys at some point over the summer. As I mentioned earlier, for the scheme connecting by the end of October, I wouldn't expect there to be any connection issues from the voluntary participants in that space, but obviously there may be other issues at that time. But I would hope and expect that at some point over the summer we'd have caught up with all of the connections into the ecosystem and that would have then given those participants the chance to catch up as well in line with the guidance. So we'll be kind of back in line with that from this autumn. Onwards would be my best estimate.

Joe Stacey

Thanks Chris.

Adam, just thinking about and this, this is related to the question we've had around the launch of the MoneyHelper Dashboard. Chris pointed out that we plan to give a sufficient notice to industry ahead of the MoneyHelper launch, but there's a question here around how will members and the general public, or how and when will they start to receive communications and marketing that dashboards are coming? Are we able to sort of shed any light on that at this point?

Adam Gifford

At the moment we're kind of solidifying and working through plans for engaging with various stakeholders, thinking about how we might get the message out about the dashboard and when it will go live. At the moment, I don't think we can share much information about that, but it's something that we are very much aware of the need to and also obviously want to start working with the industry on how we might do that. So, I think again, it's probably a case of something that will be able to provide more clarity on in the next few months as we build those plans out and look at the different options, there are some different ways in which we can do the launch, you know, from trying to attract really large volumes very quickly to doing something a bit more slow and steady. So it's again, it's thinking about these choices and thinking about how best to manage that. And I think what we want to do is make sure that we don't make some of those key decisions until we've got some evidence through that we're going to gain through the consumer testing to really back up those decisions.

So it's something that we'll be sharing much more information about once we progress a little bit further into testing and we start to see how things are working and see what those timeframes might look like.

Joe Stacey

That's very helpful. OK, I think we're going to move on to the last question now, which I'm going to put to Chris and then we'll just have some closing remarks and we'll bring the session to a close. Obviously, those questions that we haven't got to, we will pick up in writing afterwards. But Chris, just a question, we have quite often and I think you have alluded to it, but will private sector dashboards happen? Is the question we get asked quite a bit.

Chris Curry

I can give a short answer if running out of time, which is yes. But yes, I mean I think it's really important, Adam said out earlier the rationale behind launching first with the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard rather than waiting for all private sector dashboards as well. And I think it's fair to say that we got a quite a positive response to that announcement last October from large parts of the industry who can see the real benefit especially for consumers in making sure that we're doing significant testing with the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard.

And so that when we come to launch private sector dashboards, they've already been through that first set of real kind of at scale and almost real-life testing with consumers to make sure that they're going to get the best service from the private sector dashboards when they are launched. But equally, as I said, the government is really committed to the launch of private sector dashboards for a number of reasons. And I think probably the two most important ones are we want to make sure that dashboards are available wherever people will find them.

So, we know that people are always going to go out looking for a pensions dashboard but they may look for information about one pension with their current provider, or they may look at their banking app on a regular basis. Or they may look on an employer intranet somewhere. And so if we can have pensions, dashboards in those kind of places, then we'll get much more traffic going through them than we will do just having a single standalone pensions dashboard. And I think it's really important that we can then use the private sector alongside the money, help with pensions dashboard to drive innovation as well. We know that pensions dashboards are iterative. We know that they're not going to stand still.

And they will continue to evolve over time and for both those reasons, private sector dashboard are really important and that's why the government is still committed to them launching at some point not too long after the money help for pensions dashboard goes live.

Joe Stacey

OK. Thank you. Thanks, Chris and thanks, Adam. Really appreciate you for the coming on for the presentations and for answering all the questions. And thank you everybody who has participated and submitted your questions during today's webinar, I'd like to end just by highlighting how you can keep up to date with news about pensions, dashboards and contact us if you have any queries. So we are exploring opportunities for engaging with industry in person in 2025, building on the success of the events we have hosted it and the external events we have attended to create new forums for networking and sharing the latest programme updates.

Outside of these events you can get in touch with the programme via the support page on our website if you wish to raise a query and you can consult a range of articles, videos and reports that we publish on a regular basis to provide updates and general information.

You can also follow us on social media and do sign up to our newsletter to receive the latest updates via email, all of which you can do via support on our website. So thank you very much for listening and again thank you for attending and have a good afternoon.