‘Dashboard’ to help track your pensions

A NEW “dashboard” website to make it easier for savers to track their pensions has been given the go-ahead.

Pensions minister Guy Opperman revealed yesterday a study into developing a site which would show how much people can expect to have when they retire.

It would help people find all the money belonging to them from more than 64 million pension pots, administered by hundreds of different schemes and providers.

Their entitlement to the state pension would also be recorded. It would mean for the first time savers could see details of all their postemployment finances in one place. The Dashboard, an initiative managed by the Association of British Insurers, has so far drawn on the input of the Treasury and 16 pension firms.

It has also involved six technology companies, the industry’s regulators and several independent experts.

It is hoped the project will make it easier for people to save and plan for old age.

Mr Opperman said: “A well-designed and thoughtthrough pensions dashboard has the potential to help people make better decisions. We want to maximise people’s engagement in pensions while maintaining their trust. We will ensure their interests are properly safeguarded.”

The feasibility study will be finished next year, with the industry hoping the website will go live in 2019.

A prototype project was launched last year, funded by payments of £50,000 from the pension groups involved.

With people having an average of 11 employers during their careers, they can struggle to keep track of pensions and know how much they have saved towards retirement. Graham Vidler, of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, said: “The Pensions Dashboard project has the potential to reconnect millions of people with their pension savings.

“Our research found four out of five felt a national retirement income target would help them plan.”

Huw Evans, the director general of the Association of British Insurers, said: “A pensions dashboard is vital to helping workers keep track of their savings as they move employment, as well as helping them track down lost pots.” One estimate puts the amount sitting in such lost pots at £400million.