Pensions dashboards: Minister urges providers to get data in shape
Pension providers are facing demands to get customer data in a fit state for the introduction of pensions dashboards.
Pensions minister Guy Opperman has urged companies to help pave the way for the dashboards – apps to help people keep track of their savings .
The pensions dashboards will give people information about their pensions via a smartphone app, and have been billed as the solution to bring retirement money “into the digital age”.
However, they require secure and accurate data from providers.
Schemes will be forced to supply this under new laws, but Opperman said they “can’t just wait for legislation, they need to improve their data quality now so that it is ready”.
“This is consumers’ data and people should be able to see it in one place when they want.”
Steve Webb, former pensions minister and now policy director at Royal London, told City PM: “There is a huge spectrum of data quality.”
“Most modern schemes’ data is pretty good.”
But the problem lies with some older, smaller schemes, he added.
“Some records date back to the early 1970s… And a lot of this is on paper.”
“A lot is already being done [by schemes], but it is a gargantuan task.”
Opperman’s statement comes after a survey found that around a quarter of savers under the age of 55 have lost track of a pension pot from a previous employer.
The study, carried out by advice firm Profile Pensions, found that 24 per cent of the 2,096 people it polled had lost track of a past pot.