With the Pensions Dashboard Programme (PDP) firmly back on track, Bravura’s Pension Dashboard Week (PDW) is returning after a two-year hiatus.
It’s been a busy couple of years since the last event, with the PDP facing various issues and delays, pushing the original August 2023 connection deadline off track.
Following the programme’s reset in March 2023, a new timeline has been arranged, setting the first connection deadlines for April 2025. For pension providers, schemes and third-party administrators, the clock to connect is ticking.
What’s happened since the reset?
In March 2023, following numerous delays and higher-than-expected costs, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced that they were pausing and resetting the programme to ensure it remained fit for purpose.
Since then, the DWP and MaPS (Money and Pension Service) have made progress in some areas including revising the PDP’s delivery plan, reviewing the digital architecture to ensure it meets requirements, and appointing a new senior responsible owner with the necessary digital technology experience to lead the rest of the programme.
In March 2024, DWP published a new schedule of staging dates. This new phased approach is designed to manage the flow of connections to the pensions dashboards ecosystem, with the largest providers and schemes now legally required to be connected by 30th April 2025. By 31st October 2026, all schemes and providers must be connected.
In May, the PDP published an update on their Data standards, outlining the data requirements for finding and viewing pension information. This was the first published updated version of a standard, with further standards to follow soon.
That same month, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introduced a modification that allows firms to connect to the pensions dashboards digital architecture before 31st October 2026, even where they are unable to provide 100% of their relevant scheme members’ data.
Previously, any firm that completed connection to the dashboard’s digital architecture before the final deadline would have had to comply with all the obligations, including the need to connect with 100% of their relevant pension scheme members’ data. The modification should increase the number of firms who are able to connect.
In August, PDP published an updated version of the Code of Connection, and in September – of the Technical standards.
What happens next?
For regulators and providers, there is still work to be done ahead of the first connection deadline. For the PDP, updates to the reporting standards as well as guidance on connection are all expected later in 2024. Dashboard design standards, aimed at entities that will provide a commercial dashboard, are also expected.
All standards are still in draft, so final versions need to be published, once they have been validated.
For providers, it’s all about preparing to connect. Firms can do this directly, or contract a third party to provide a connection solution. Due to the cost and complexity of connecting directly, it’s expected that most pension providers and schemes will choose the latter, either through their administrator or an integrated service provider (ISP), such as Bravura’s Dashboards Connect.
Join us for Pension Dashboard Week (PDW) 2024
Taking place between 23rd and 27th September, PDW 2024 is an educational initiative featuring a series of online sessions focused on dashboards, UK pensions and the future of investment technologies. This year’s theme, The Voice of the Consumer, offers an opportunity to pause and reimagine how we can all work together towards one ultimate goal – serving consumers better.
Register here.
Connect to the PDP ecosystem with Bravura’s ISP
Our award-winning ISP offers a secure, scalable, and no-code solution for connecting to the UK’s pension dashboards. It enables fast implementation, ensures data security without storing identifiable information, and can scale effortlessly to handle large volumes of data requests. This allows providers to focus on their core business while seamlessly meeting regulatory requirements.
Find out more here.
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