How data flows in the pensions dashboards ecosystem

Let's look at the journey information takes through the pensions dashboards ecosystem, seeing how it travels safely and securely from pension providers and schemes to pensions dashboards and who processes it.

This is the pensions dashboards ecosystem, which has been designed to manage your information securely.

There are three main areas where information is processed.

First are pensions dashboards. These are web applications where you can view your pensions information. These could be the government-backed MoneyHelper dashboard or a private sector dashboard.

Second are the central services managed by the Money and Pensions Service. These ensure the secure flow of information between you, pensions dashboards and your pensions information, which is held by the third group, pension providers, schemes, and for the State Pension, the Department for Work and Pensions. They're the only ones that permanently hold your pensions information.

We can see how your information is kept secure by following its journey through the ecosystem.

When you access a pensions dashboard, you'll be directed to services run by MaPS and then asked to prove who you are using the secure government identity service, GOV.UK One Login.

This verifies certain information as belonging to you, including your first and last name, date of birth, email, and if it's used for 2-factor authentication, your mobile phone number. It also does checks on your address. After this, you can provide extra details like your National Insurance number.

All this information together is called ‘find data’.

The Money and Pensions Service does not retain this information, but sends it on to pension providers, schemes and the Department for Work and Pensions who administer the State Pension.

Your information is only sent to pension providers, schemes and the Department for Work and Pensions for them to try to match you against their records.

If they find a match or possible match, they register a secure code called a pension identifier with the Money and Pensions Service.

These identifiers act like signposts, telling the dashboard where to request your pensions information from without the Money and Pensions Service ever processing or storing your pensions information centrally.

By themselves, pension identifiers don't enable access to any personal pensions information. They only work when you authorise a pensions dashboard to request your pensions information directly from the pension provider, scheme or the Department for Work and Pensions.

There are other coded identifiers and tokens that the Money and Pensions Service stores and processes to make pensions dashboards work securely.

These represent you and your choices while hiding your identity, and by themselves they cannot be used to identify you.

The actual pensions information, like the name of the pensions you've saved into and how much they're worth, is sent securely and encrypted direct to the pensions dashboard.

On its way to the dashboard, it never passes through or is stored by any centrally managed services operated by the Money and Pensions Service.

Now the dashboard can show your pensions information to you. You can see information for all your found pensions, State Pension, workplace pensions and personal pensions together in one place.

This can include current values, estimated retirement income, when they may be payable, and signposts to guidance on understanding your pensions.

This information is only shown during your session and is not stored by the dashboard.

If pension providers and schemes need more time to send you your information, or you need to provide them with more details, the dashboard will tell you.

This process is secure by design, protecting your information and keeping you in control of who has access to it.