The Pensions Dashboard Programme has revised its delivery plan, which it says will enable it to meet the new connection deadline of October 31 2026.
In its latest industry update, the PDP said that “considerable progress” had been made to this plan over the past 12 months, despite the launch date being pushed back again.
However PDP principal Chris Curry stressed that despite these delays “it is vital that pension providers and schemes continue to prepare for dashboards.. by working through issues such as data readiness now”.
The update said that since April 2023 PDP has been focusing on producing a new programme plan as part of its “reset activity”:
“This is 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.”
The PDP also added that work has continued with the programme’s 20-plus volunteer participant organisations on developing the connection journey for the rest of industry.
However Broadstone’s pension dashboard deliver manager Jon Pocock says this latest update reveals that there is still significant work to be undertaken before these dashboards are a usable part of the pensions ecosystem.
Pocock says: “Following the latest progress update, we welcome the small amount of clarity that has been provided.
“One of the key challenges many administrators have faced is being able to clearly articulate expectations to clients who are now used to having the goalposts moved and more recently changed shape.”
He adds: “The key message that we have taken away from the update, and the supporting webinar, is that there is still much more work to be done before a plan can be published, for activity between now and the final connection date.
“The publication of staging guidance is set for early 2024 (probably Feb) but that cannot be confirmed until DWP have undertaken engagement with industry which is scheduled for Autumn 2023.
“The progress report commits to providing 12 months notice of the first connection date, from the publication of guidance – putting the first connection in early 2025 – given that previous staging was scheduled over 24 months, it will not be possible to do a like for like shift of staging – so we cannot make any assumptions to the sequence in which guidance will ask our schemes to connect.”
He adds: “It is reassuring that much time is being devoted to testing, both from a technical / connectivity view point and then subsequently with a limited (and increasing) live user base, but there is still much planning to do to ensure this is effective and give confidence to schemes to connect in a timely manner.
“All in all, positive to see that there is continued progress and we will continue to support PDP in gathering the information they need to progress their replanning, but there is still an awful long way to go until we have absolute clarity.”
