Pensions: Online Dashboard

Baroness Altmann Excerpts

Tuesday 24th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Buscombe]

My Lords, the noble Baroness will know that we are talking about something quite complex. As we look at it, the more we explore and the more questions we ask ourselves and the industry. My honourable friend in another place was right to talk about what was set out in 2016. We want to be careful to ensure that we cover all the challenging issues associated with the dashboard, not least questions of governance, funding, what role the Government might have and whether legislation is necessary. The department has been working closely with stakeholders across the pensions and financial services industry, the regulators, consumer bodies and others, as part of this feasibility study.

[Baroness Altmann (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the potential of the pensions dashboard and I thank the Minister for her answers so far. It does not sound as if the whole project has been parked, but can my noble friend comment on the accuracy of pensions data and whether the problems of errors in pension recording have led to some concerns about a dashboard containing past pension records? Can she perhaps reassure the House that, at the very least, all auto-enrolment pension records could be put on to a dashboard funded by the industry—not by government but facilitated by her department?

[Baroness Buscombe]

First, I congratulate my noble friend on being appointed as the chair of pensionsync. I noticed that the question she has just asked was on her blog this week, suggesting that it is perhaps due to errors. I entirely refute that suggestion. The reality is that we already have, as my noble friend well knows, the online Pension Tracing Service to help people more easily locate their pension savings. We have also established the “Check Your State Pension” service, which has provided more than 9 million estimates since its introduction in 2016. We also have the development of a single financial guidance body. This department is doing a huge amount towards a revolution in the way that we support people to save in their retirement. Auto-enrolment, to which nearly 10 million people have actually signed up in the last six years, is an example of where we are working with this quiet revolution.