There have been a number of developments since our last Pensions Dashboards Update in December.  

The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) released its latest progress report in December. This report set out updates from the previous months, including the written ministerial statement back in October 2024 in which the government confirmed its commitment to pensions dashboards. It highlighted the progress of volunteer participant connection with the first two volunteer participants having completed integration testing. 

The introduction of the GOV.UK One Login system is hoped to streamline user access by offering seamless connectivity across government services. The PDP has updated its identity service webpage to provide more detail and clarification on address verification. 

For those connecting directly to the dashboard ecosystem, or for integrated service providers and third-party administrators connecting on their behalf, the PDP has published resources to support industry testing. Testing must be completed by providers and schemes connecting directly to ensure the required standards are met. The PDP’s resources cover system testing and integration testing. 

TPR updated its Pensions Dashboards: Initial Guidance in December. Key changes include:

  • a new section on actions trustees must take in respect of registration codes;
  • the "Matching people with their pensions" section confirms that potential members will be verified by GOV.UK One Login before they can issue a "find request";
  • clarifications on data for matching purposes and returning accurate and timely data to members;
  • additional information has been included for schemes with multiple sections or administrators in relation to needing to agree the most suitable approach for data discrepancies between sections, the level of information to provide to the member where a member is a successful match for one section but only a ‘possible match’ for another, and the need to consider which contact information to provide to the member where a scheme has multiple sections with different administrators;
  • incorporating the DWP guidance on staged connection – trustees are expected to connect in line with their ‘connect by’ dates and should consider and mitigate any risks of delayed connection; and 
  • Updates on the draft MaPS standards, including data standards, reporting standards and the Code of Connection. 

Schemes should expect to receive an email from TPR with 2 registration codes per scheme and setting out next steps 3-5 months ahead of their ‘connect by’ date. 

On 13 December, the House of Commons Library published a briefing paper on pensions dashboards setting out a summary of pensions dashboards in the UK, their development and delivery and current issues and debate. 

Trustees should have an appropriate governance structure in place to oversee pensions dashboard compliance and should be well underway in preparing their schemes for their ‘connect by’ dates.  Trustees will need to be able to monitor progress towards compliance with an appropriate audit trail of decisions taken. Data and dashboards should be regular items at trustee board meetings and trustees should be considering data mapping and any data gaps. Trustees should review and understand the contractual agreements with their providers and ensure the provisions are consistent with their objectives for dashboard compliance.  

If you would like any advice or assistance with dashboards compliance, we are very well placed to help. Please contact Andy Prater, Susannah Young or your usual Burges Salmon Pensions and Lifetime Savings team contact.