Chris Curry: we now have ISPs who have finished the connection journey and are able to start onboarding schemes
The pensions industry should work towards achieving the dashboard deadlines next year, Pensions Dashboard Programme (PDP) principal Chris Curry says.
Speaking at today's (6 March) Professional Pensions Admin and Data Forum, Chris Curry said schemes will be facing a "crunch time" as they work to meet the dashboard deadlines, updating delegates on the PDP's connection programme.
Curry said around 20 voluntary participants are being connected onto the ecosystem, with PDP having spent time creating the central digital architecture (CDA) for dashboards, with the process having started in August last year.
He said the first three ‘pathfinder' organisations – Pension Fusion, Heywood and Legal & General – completed their connection journeys yesterday (5 March), while the remaining 17 are also working towards the goal of being ready for onboarding onto systems.
He said: "We are learning as we go, so each step is becoming a little bit faster as we have corrected some of the issues that came up from the pathfinders, who have helped us a lot, and have been going through a lot of pain to make sure it is easier for the people that follow afterwards."
Curry said the key date for the industry to work towards was the legislative connection deadline of 31 October 2026 but said most schemes would have connected "well in advance" of this.
The first staging deadline is now 30 April 2025 for the largest schemes, which he said means more individuals will be "part of the ecosystem sooner".
Curry said: "We are pleased we are able to say we now have integrated service providers (ISPs) who have finished the connection journey and are able to start onboarding schemes."
But he urged schemes to "keep having regards to the guidance and make sure you are taking account of it in the decisions you are making".
In terms of dashboards themselves, Curry said the focus is now turning to how data will be displayed – adding the Moneyhelper dashboard will be launched before commercial dashboards.
This means there will be "more opportunity to do more work with consumers to ensure the dashboard environment in which they are going to be operating is safer and more secure for them as we go through" which could influence commercial dashboards coming after this.
Once dashboards are connected initially, live testing can begin, which is set to start later in the year. Curry said this will provide more insight into user questions, understanding, and making dashboards "a positive experience for people", adding it needs to be a "collaborative effort" among the industry, government, regulators, and PDP.
While there is not yet a set date when both commercial and Moneyhelper dashboards will be publicly available, as data and safety measures are needed first, Curry said users will need to see the "majority, if not all their pensions", adding 90 to 95% of all scheme memberships will be available at the end of this year once the first staging deadlines have passed.
"There might be a little bit of flexibility required over the next couple of months as we go through the connection journeys, especially the early cohorts… but there is a lot of work you can be doing even without the connection going through".
Curry added the most important thing for schemes is to "work out how you're going to be connecting to the infrastructure" whether directly or though and ISP or administrator – adding good communication is key for this, while data quality needs to be ensured so it can deal with the requests that come in.
Responding to an audience question on changing platforms, Curry said any changes or reasons why guidance cannot be followed needs to be documented, with all decisions needing to be accounted for – adding the regulatory duty to connect by the deadline also needs be fulfilled.
PDP considerations
Curry added PDP is considering how services like Moneyhelper can be publicised, alongside boosting engagement with pensions, as dashboard take-up "will have impact for the rest of the industry".
He also pointed out a myth about dashboards is that there is a "big pool of data somewhere that someone can access – we designed the system to be incredibly secure, so the data never actually resides anywhere from where it currently is at the moment… it is only there for as long as someone is looking at it".
He reiterated the focus on safety: "It is really important people understand this isn't [about] pooling all the information together, which would be a wonderful target for financial scams or fraud, it is designed to be as safe as it possibly can be."
Responding to another question, Curry commented that schemes expecting to transact, whether through windup or buyout, need to be "100% certain" they will not need the dashboard rather than assuming they will not need to meet the connection deadline – reminding them again of the importance of meeting the regulatory duty.
Answering another question on whether commercial dashboards would be unavailable – a question asked at a Department for Work and Pensions committee meeting recently – Curry responded firmly "no" but said he understood that clarity was needed on exactly how commercial dashboards will come into operation.
