Commenting on the news that a prototype of the Pensions Dashboard should be ready by spring next year, Jon Hatchett, Head of Corporate Consulting at Hymans Robertson, said:

“Delivering on the ambition of bringing everyone’s DC and state pension data into a consolidated is no small undertaking. But it’s a hugely important step in helping to solve the crippling savings crisis we face as a nation. Post the referendum on Brexit, three quarters of those with DC pensions are unlikely to secure an adequate income in retirement*.

“When we asked consumers what would encourage them to save more, 72% said having a complete picture of what all pensions plus state pension will provide in retirement**. This is hardly surprising. You can only plan properly for retirement when you know how much you do or don’t have.

“For the dashboard to work effectively Defined Benefit pension entitlements are a key part of the jigsaw. However, integrating DB data will come with challenges. The quality of the data is hugely variable depending on a scheme’s history. There is also a question over how much it would cost to make this happen across the 6,000 DB schemes in the UK, and who would foot the bill. Given the savings shortfalls we see across the nation, it’s surely got to be a worthwhile spend.

“Self-service, online access to pensions data is where the industry is heading. Already we see good quality third party administrators giving scheme members access to this data. It’s only a matter of time before it becomes the norm.”

* according to our analysis of 500,000 DC pension plans on Hymans Robertson’s Guided Outcomes (GO) platform

** Hymans Robertson commissioned Populus to survey 2,000 consumers in September 2015