“Capacity crunch” risk as schemes failing to plan for dashboards

Less than half of pension schemes have a plan for connecting to the pension dashboard system, according to a poll from LCP.

The consultancy firm found that only 39% of pensions industry representatives it polled have prepared a pensions dashboard “project plan”. It asked attendees at a recent webinar – including trustees, lawyers and pension managers – if they had prepared a pensions dashboard “project plan”.

A further 42% said they had not, and 19% said they did not know.

Ella Holloway, senior consultant at LCP, said that with larger schemes being expected to connect to the pension dashboard ‘ecosystem’ by this time next year, the lack of planning could lead to a serious capacity crunch as deadlines approach.

Holloway added: “It was surprising to see that so many schemes were yet to come up with a project plan for dashboards. While momentum had stalled while the government re-set its timetable, it is now ‘full steam ahead’.

“Schemes should now know the date by which the government expects them to connect to the dashboards ecosystem, and the backstop deadline of October 2026 will be upon us before we know it.

“There is no doubt that the secret to making dashboards as painless as possible is planning, but many schemes clearly have a long way to go with dashboard preparedness.”

The webinar also discussed how schemes will connect to the dashboards ecosystem.

Options include connecting directly or using a specialist “integrated service provider” to help manage the process. More than a third of attendees at LCP’s webinar said they planned to use this option, with 11% building their own solution. However, 54% said they did not know how their scheme would connect.

The Department for Work and Pensions published its timeline for dashboard connections last month. Schemes have been split into tranches or “cohorts”, with deadlines beginning from 30 April 2025. The largest schemes will be brought on board first, with smaller schemes having later deadlines.