Steve Webb, Director of Policy at Royal London said: “This announcement is a huge breakthrough after a period of uncertainty. There is much that the industry can do to deliver a dashboard, but only the government can supply vitally important state pension data and only the government can legislate to make sure that the dashboard’s coverage is comprehensive. Backed by this renewed commitment by the government, the whole pension industry now needs to work together to drive forward this much-needed initiative”.
Kate Smith, Head of Pensions at Aegon comments on the government’s announcement that the pensions dashboard is to be delivered by the industry: “We’ve always been a supporter of the pension dashboard and believe it has the potential for people not only to keep track of their pension pots but also to start to drive up pension engagement.
“The whole point of the pension dashboard is so people can see all their pensions online in one place. Government needs to facilitate this by legislating to compel all schemes and the State to provide pension detail when asked to do so. Without this the pension dashboard risks being half-baked.
“For the time being we remain cautiously optimistic that government support continues and await the publication of the feasibility study which is key to the industry being able to move forward with developing the dashboard initiative.”
Adrian Boulding, Director of Policy at NOW: Pensions said: “For the dashboard to succeed, government need to be in the driving seat not in the passenger seat.
“It’s clear that legislation is essential to compel all providers to share their data with the dashboard and the inclusion of the State Pension is a must.
“For most people, the State Pension will still make up the majority of their retirement savings and a dashboard without this data would be pointless. A large number of people also have public sector pensions and government need to ensure that this data is available. We hope the feasibility study will shed more light on how the government sees its role in this potentially revolutionary project.”
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