'˜Digital dashboard' to show pensions in one place

An industry project to design a prototype system, which should one day allow people to see all their pension pots online in one place, has been delivered on time and been demonstrated to government ministers, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said.

Under government plans previously announced, the digital pensions dashboard will be available to use generally by 2019, making it easier for people to see how much money they have saved in total and work out how much they still need to save for a comfortable retirement.

On average, workers have 11 different jobs during their lifetime, meaning they can end up juggling many pension pots of varying amounts.

The ABI is managing the pensions dashboard prototype project on behalf of the Treasury.

The project involves input from the Government, independent experts and pension firms including Aviva, LV=, Legal & General, Prudential, Scottish Widows, Royal London and Standard Life.

The behind-the-scenes technology being developed could eventually allow people to find all of the pension savings belonging to them among over 60 million different pension pots, administered by thousands of different schemes and pension providers, along with the state pension.

Under the plans, the service would be offered by a range of different providers rather than by a single, central service.

Yvonne Braun, the ABI’s director of long-term savings and protection policy, said: “The prototype demonstrates once and for all that the technological hurdles can be overcome.

“Giving people access to clear information about all their pensions has the potential to revolutionise how they think about saving for their retirement.”