Published: 22 June 2022
Last updated: 17 December 2024
17 December 2024
Updates throughout the guidance to bring it in line with external developments and address industry feedback.
12 April 2024
Link to DWP guidance on annualised accrued value calculations added to information to provide to members.
26 March 2024
Rewrite of when your scheme needs to connect with dashboards to cover the new staged timeline for schemes to connect.
14 July 2023
Failing to comply with pensions dashboards duties updated to include information on how trustees and scheme managers will be expected to demonstrate that they have had regard to the guidance on staging timelines.
8 June 2023
Rewrite of when your scheme needs to connect with dashboards to cover the new deadline and staging timeline for schemes to connect.
15 March 2023
Significant updates throughout the guidance to incorporate the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 and Money and Pensions Service standards.
20 July 2022
Updated guidance following government response to consultation on Draft Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022.
As a pension trustee or scheme manager, you will need to connect with and supply pensions information to savers through dashboards. This is your duty required by the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has set out a staged timetable for schemes to connect to the dashboard digital architecture. Schemes are asked to connect over time according to their size and type. All schemes in scope must be connected by 31 October 2026 at the latest.
There is significant work involved to comply with your dashboards duties and you may need to engage third-party providers to help you with this work, such as an administrator or an integrated service provider (ISP). You should work with your advisers to assess the impact of the changes and plan how you will meet your dashboard duties.
Many of the dashboards processes are still being developed and are subject to further testing. We will update this guidance when necessary to reflect further developments and the industry’s experience with dashboards. Find out more about how to stay up to date with developments.
What are pensions dashboards?
Pensions dashboards are digital services – apps, websites or other tools – which savers will be able to use to see their pension information in one place. This includes information on their State Pension. Pensions dashboards will not show pensions that are already being paid.
A saver will use dashboards to issue a search of the records of all connected pension schemes, to confirm whether or not they are a member. For simplicity in this guidance, we use the term ‘saver’ to refer to users of the dashboards, and ‘member’ to refer to those who have been matched by schemes.
Dashboards aim to help members plan for retirement by:
- finding their various pensions and reconnecting them with any lost pension pots
- understanding the value of their pensions in terms of an estimated retirement income
The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) will develop and host its own pensions dashboard on the MoneyHelper website. The MoneyHelper dashboard will be the first to be available to the public. Other organisations will also be able to develop and host their own dashboards at a later stage. This will be subject to approval by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
For pensions dashboards to work, MaPS is building a digital architecture which will connect pensions dashboards to pension schemes. You can find out more about the digital architecture on the MaPS website.
Which schemes are in scope?
Dashboards duties will apply to the trustees or scheme managers of:
- registrable occupational pension schemes with 100 or more relevant members
- public service pension schemes
A relevant member is an active, deferred or pension credit member. Members who are receiving benefits (pensioners) or whose benefits have been cashed in to provide a tax-free lump sum, purchase an annuity or drawdown income are not relevant members. However, members who have taken an uncrystallised funds pension lump sum (UFPLS) should still be considered in scope for dashboards.
The FCA has made corresponding rules for FCA-regulated pension providers in respect of personal and stakeholder pension schemes.
Common in and out of scope scenarios
- If your scheme’s main administration is in the UK, it will be in scope of the regulations, even if some sections are administered outside the UK.
- If your scheme is in the process of buying out, you will remain in scope until the buy-out is complete and the number of relevant members falls to zero. The members who receive an individual insurance policy issued by the buy-out provider will become new members under the accountability of that provider.
- If your scheme is in the process of winding up, you are still in scope, unless the number of relevant members falls to zero. However, there are some exemptions to the information to provide to your members.
- If the whole of your scheme starts an assessment period with the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) before your connection deadline, you will be out of scope of the regulations for the duration of the assessment. However, if any sections of your scheme are not in assessment, the entire scheme is still in scope, but there are some exemptions to the information to provide to your members.
- If your scheme has members with additional voluntary contribution (AVC) arrangements, you need to work with the AVC provider(s) to identify which members are relevant, based on the scheme’s trust deed and rules, and the specific AVC arrangement details.
Your role and legal duties
You will be required to:
- register your scheme with MaPS and connect to dashboards by a specific deadline
- receive personal information on savers, and search and match members to their pensions (‘find requests’)
- provide members with information about their pension through the dashboard of their choosing upon request (‘view requests’)
- co-operate with MaPS when preparing to connect, maintain records and report certain information to us and MaPS
You will need to do all the above in compliance with standards published from time to time by MaPS and have regard to the DWP’s guidance on connection, considering the:
- staged timetable
- guidance issued by MaPS
- guidance issued by The Pensions Regulator (TPR)
Working with advisers and providers
You will need to work with several organisations to get connected to dashboards. Typically, this will involve providers assisting you with your data preparation and those assisting you with connection to the digital architecture (referred to in this guidance as ‘connection providers’), which may include your administrator, software providers, actuary and legal advisers. It could also include employers (to improve the availability and quality of personal data) and external data providers (for example AVC providers if you do not hold full details of the AVC entitlement with the main scheme information).
Talk to them as soon as you can about their dashboards plans and how they can support you. Early engagement will help them plan their workload and improve their ability to support you.
You may need to procure new services or update your provider contracts. This will take time and may hold up your preparations if you do not address this early.
The dashboards duties apply to trustees and scheme managers. While you can use third parties to help you meet your duties, you will ultimately remain accountable for ensuring that your scheme is connected to dashboards on time and that you are (and remain) compliant with the requirements. You will need to be available to make any decisions required for your providers to progress their work and you should put in place robust ways to monitor this progress. Where they are supporting other clients with similar connection deadlines, make sure they have enough capacity to deliver.
For more information, see our guidance on the selection, appointment, management and replacement of any suppliers.
Discussion points with third parties
Here is a list of areas that you may wish to discuss with your third-party providers. There will be more points that are specific to your scheme. We encourage you to keep a record of your enquiries, the response and any decisions made.
- Roles and responsibilities. It is important to be clear about the roles and responsibilities of those who are supporting you to meet your duties, and ensure there are no gaps in the process.
- Awareness of compliance requirements. When delegating any work to third parties, make sure they are aware of the relevant compliance requirements, for example the standards set by MaPS.
- Data review and improvement plan. Good data quality is fundamental to your dashboards duties. It is vital to work with your administrators to review and set up improvement and data control plans.
- Monitoring progress. Put a process in place to receive regular reports in line with the legal requirements and other information you will need to consider for reporting purposes, such as MaPS standards. We recommend you add pensions dashboards as a regular agenda item at your board meeting to monitor the progress.
MaPS standards
MaPS will set the standards relating to the provision of data through pensions dashboards and the digital architecture needed to support this. These standards will provide the rules and controls that will facilitate the smooth ongoing connection to pensions dashboards. MaPS has updated their draft standards which will help schemes and providers to connect to the dashboards architecture and facilitate ongoing connection and associated reporting.
Trustees and scheme managers need to be aware of the requirements in these standards and ensure that your connection providers and scheme administrators are meeting them. You should also make sure that connection providers and administrators are closely aware of any developments in this area.
The topics covered in these standards are as follows.
- Data standards: set out in detail how schemes receive data from the dashboards architecture and return appropriate data to dashboards. You should be working with your scheme administrators to deliver any required improvements to your members’ personal and value data. You should ensure the data is available, accurate and accessible, in line with these standards. More detail can be found in ‘preparing data for matching and for value data’.
- Reporting standards: set out information you will need to ensure is generated, recorded and supplied, that MaPS and TPR can monitor the effectiveness of pensions dashboards and compliance with regulations. Some of these standards will take effect from April 2025 (such as keeping records against all the data requirements specified in the reporting standards) with the remainder taking effect at a later date, which is subject to the testing period. You should be familiar with the record-keeping requirements set out in the standards and work with your third-party providers to ensure you comply with them. Find more detail in record-keeping.
- Technical standards: set out how pension schemes (or their connection providers) will interface with the dashboards architecture and user-facing pension dashboards. You need to seek assurance from your connection providers that they are meeting these standards.
- Code of connection: sets out the connection, technical, security, service and operational standards you will need to meet to connect to the digital architecture. This includes the timeframes you have to return data and the availability of the scheme’s connection to dashboards. You need to seek assurance from your connection providers that they are meeting these standards.