Commenting on the news that the Government is pressing ahead with the pensions dashboard, Scott Finnie, Product Architect said:

“It’s great news for consumers that the Government is pressing ahead with the pensions dashboard, particularly in the context of freedom and choice and the burden of responsibility that puts on consumers.

“People struggle to track down their pension pots - hence the emergence of so many pensions tracing and consolidation providers. More importantly people need to understand what they’ve saved, what they have to get them through retirement and crucially the charges they’re paying.

“It’s only when people see products stacked up against one another that they might realise that they’re paying through the nose unnecessarily and that well known scourge of the pensions industry – inertia – may start to become a thing of the past.

“Having access to this basic information, and having it all in one place, is a necessary foundation to underpin better decision making.

“It’s also great news for the industry, as this announcement is essentially an acknowledgment that Government will get behind supporting secure, consistent access to pensions and savings data – in other words creating common data protocols that are easily accessible. Fortunately some of these already exist. In that context the Government’s decision to press ahead won’t stall innovation in the industry, and some providers have made clear their intentions to provide their own dashboard. Instead it should catalyse it.

“But there will be challenges ahead which will require creativity and innovation. Not least creating engaging portals that people can interact with effortlessly to secure a better future. Another challenge will be getting hold of legacy DB data. However the potential benefit to consumers is huge and the benefit to the industry in reducing administration costs through free flowing and secure data is also huge.  So this is a great opportunity for the industry to make a change – to embrace data privacy, security and cutting edge technology to forge a better future retirement for ordinary people. And soon we’ll reach a tipping point where more people will start retiring with DC pensions, and with auto enrolment bringing 9.5m people into the DC pensions fold, we need to press ahead with making DC a success. Allowing legacy pensions and the pursuit of perfection to be a barrier to progress would be to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”