While we are waiting for the dashboard to be developed can we at least have easier logging into our pensions accounts?
Do my pension providers want to keep me at bay? That’s what it sometimes feels like.
To check the current value of one of my pensions, I first have to work out which of three log in options that it offers I should choose. Do I have a membership that starts with the initials ZU? If so, it’s one login. Do I have a retirement account? That’s a second. Or – the third option – do I have a workplace, personal or stakeholder pension with it?
Were I not someone who writes about pensions, that array of options could be quite bamboozling.
I have two pensions with a second provider – and three different sets of login details to view them. If I use one login, I can see them both in one place – and an Isa I hold with the same firm – but I can’t see how well the pensions are performing. Or I can use the other two logins if I want to see where the pensions are invested or make changes to them.
Pension firms, industry bodies and government departments wring their hands at how poor pension engagement is in the UK. Every week I receive at least two or three press releases on the subject.
A quick snapshot – in recent weeks, a Scottish Widows Retirement Report tells me a quarter of UK adults aren’t sure how pensions work.
Wealth manager Killik & Co says 32 per cent of Britons have ‘never even reviewed their pension forecast’.
Retirement specialist Wealth At Work says there is a ‘general lack of pension understanding and engagement’. It points out that 29 per cent of employees are unaware that their pension is even invested.
The finger is frequently pointed at workers and retirees for failing to adequately prepare for and think about retirement.
If only they would just check their statement from time to time, increase their contributions, check their fees, find out what they’re investing in, experts lament.
But, if my experience is anything to go by, the pensions industry doesn’t always make it easy for them.
Of course, I realise that my experience is anecdotal, and sometimes providers go above and beyond. The annual statements I receive by post from one, for example, are magnificent: fully personalised, jargon free and clear.
But others have a long way to go.
I’m hopeful that pensions dashboards will be a massive step change in making pension engagement easier.
I couldn’t be happier to read this month that another four providers have joined the industry coalition of potential operators. That brings the choice of potential dashboards to 15.
Of course, it will be invaluable when savers can finally see all their retirement wealth in one place. I’m sure that for many people, seeing exactly how much they have saved for retirement – and therefore the shortfall to the retirement that they hope for – will be enough of a wake-up call to get them to engage with their pensions in the way of which the industry and regulators dream.
But, the simple fact that savers won’t need to remember log in details for each pension will be a gamechanger alone.
I know now not to get too excited. It was over seven years ago that I attended a pension event that showcased what the dashboard could look like. I came back to the office buzzing and happily bored anyone who would even feign to listen about the potential of dashboards. But the original deadline for completion has been missed by five years and counting.
Every year that the launch date is pushed back again extends the wait before countless savers are jolted out of their slumber – and brings them another year closer to retirement with inadequate savings.
But we don’t need to wait. A dashboard would be great, but I suspect pension engagement could be improved with far less.
Logging into their pension accounts is few people’s idea of a good time. And it rarely makes it to the top of the admin pile – there are so many other, seemingly more urgent things that take precedence. So, if someone does decide to, it’s essential that it’s as seamless as possible – any obstacle could set them back a week or even a decade.
Any friction and the moment is lost.
That’s why every time I try to check on my pensions and have to wade through options and multiple logins it doesn’t just frustrate me. It makes my blood boil.
There are easy wins out there to
encourage savers to engage with their
pensions – and they’re not always to blame when they don’t.
