UK. Pensions dashboards: Minister urges providers to get data in shape

Pensions minister Guy Opperman has urged companies to help pave the way for the dashboards – apps to help people keep track of their savings .

The pensions dashboards will give people information about their pensions via a smartphone app, and have been billed as the solution to bring retirement money “into the digital age”.

However, they require secure and accurate data from providers. Schemes will be forced to supply this under new laws, but Opperman said they “can’t just wait for legislation, they need to improve their data quality now so that it is ready”.

“This is consumers’ data and people should be able to see it in one place when they want.” Steve Webb, former pensions minister and now policy director at Royal London, told City A.M.: “There is a huge spectrum of data quality.” “Most modern schemes’ data is pretty good.”

But the problem lies with some older, smaller schemes, he added. “Some records date back to the early 1970s… And a lot of this is on paper.”

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