A majority of UK pensions holders are struggling to manage multiple pensions pots but dashboards could represent a turning point for member engagement with millions of consumers expected to use the service when launched, new research reveals.
Ahead of the LGPS Pension Managers’ Conference 2024, Bravura surveyed 2,000 workplace pensions holders to uncover the current state of member engagement and understand how consumers plan on interacting with dashboards as the industry approaches the first connection deadline in April 2025.
The research found that more than half of workplace pension holders (52%) are currently feeling overwhelmed by managing multiple pension pots, but those aged between 25 and 34 are struggling the most compared with any other demographic (64%). With auto enrolment (AE) introduced in 2012 and responsible for creating an estimated 10 million pension savers, only a third (33%) of those aged 55 and above faced the same challenges.
Pensions dashboards, however, are likely to experience an explosion of users looking to better understand and manage their future retirement savings. Eight in ten (82%) – or more than 16 million people – plan to use dashboards when launched, emphasising the importance of having scalable solutions that can cope with surges in demand.
Of those planning to use a pensions dashboard service, over three quarters (76%) think they will have a positive impact when planning for their retirement and six in ten (60%) expect to find a lost or forgotten pension.
In addition to find and viewing their pensions information (50%), respondents are also interested in using dashboards to monitor pension contributions (45%), estimate their total balance at retirement age and to stay updated on the performance of their pension investments (42%).
Longer term, if pensions dashboards were able to provide services to help better manage their retirement money, almost two in five respondents (36%) say they would like to see insight tools (calculators, estimators and analysers). More than three in ten (31%) would be interested in consolidating pensions via dashboards.
Jonathan Hawkins, Bravura’s Propositions Lead EMEA, said: “Dashboards are just around the corner and they couldn’t come at a better time for the public. Aside from helping pension savers who are struggling to manage multiple pension pots, pensions dashboards could open up a world of possibilities for pension providers to increase the level of targeted support and personalisation for different demographics.
“The potential popularity of dashboards means that all eyes will be on the industry when dashboards are open to the public. Whilst dashboards are federated by design and should handle surges in demand from potentially millions of calls for data. However any dashboard user action beyond ‘passive monitoring’ risks incapacitating providers with large volumes of requests that require manual intervention – such as correction of errors, calculations, transfers, consolidation, or even simple requests for extra information.
“If providers are to turn dashboards into an opportunity to grow and better support their savers, many will need to invest in their underlying technology infrastructure to finally do away with the inefficient and messy patchwork of systems that have built up over decades.”
Respondent overview
Our research secured the views of 2,000 respondents and analysed it by gender, age and income by region, gender, education and age. Once it is published early next year we are happy to work with you if you have a specific interest in certain cuts of the data.
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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