Heywood Pension Tech
Pensions Dashboards lead John Dale covers the Government response to the Pensions Dashboards Further Consultation.
It’s not just the antics within Westminster that have been making the headlines this week, it’s been an equally exciting time for everyone involved with the Pensions Dashboards project too. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published their response to the Pensions Dashboards: Further Consultation on Monday and the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 were published and laid before parliament on the same day! We’re moving ever closer to the dashboards becoming a reality.
What was the Further Consultation, again?
- Do you agree that 90 days is a reasonable period between the Dashboard Availability Point (DAP) formally being announced, and the DAP itself?
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Do you have any comments on the proposed powers to disclose information?
The consultation ran for three weeks and closed on 19 July 2022. Read our blog on this, here.
Now I remember! What was the DWP response?
Almost 70% of respondents stated that 90 days was an unreasonable notice period and some argued that the DAP should be announced 9-12 months in advance. Multiple DAPs (based on age profiles) had also been proposed by some respondents, to reduce resource requirements on schemes and provide a means of testing the use of pensions dashboards in a live environment in a controlled way. The government rejected the multiple DAP proposals on the basis that it could be confusing in terms of user experience and ensuring consumer communication campaigns are clear and effective.
What About Disclosure of Information?
The DWP will be proceeding as planned on the disclosure of information provision, to enable the Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) to support each other as appropriate in their roles relating to the secure delivery of the Pensions Dashboards digital architecture. There was little resistance from respondents, with the majority (96%) explicitly agreeing or not disagreeing/commenting on the proposals. DWP have made one technical change to the Amending Order in the draft regulations to support disclosure. The drafting now includes references to MaPS’ wider functions in respect of dashboards, as provided for in relevant primary legislation. This is to ensure that the breadth of MaPS functions in relation to the pensions dashboard ecosystem are fully catered for, in line with their policy intent.
Pensions Dashboards - coming soon to a screen near you
This was the strapline that DWP lead with on their website when they announced that the regulations had been laid before parliament on Monday 17 October 2022. You can read the full article here.
What should I do next?
If you haven’t started your Pensions Dashboard Project already, you should do so as soon as possible. Data readiness should be one of your first priorities and don’t forget to select an Integrated Service Provider (ISP) to take the sting out of connecting to the Pensions Dashboards Programme’s ecosystem.
Data solutions to get you ready for the Dashboards - and more!
Our data solutions and services will help you get ready to connect to the Pensions Dashboards and more, providing you with improved data quality for all your administration requirements.
The Heywood ISP
Our ISP solution will ensure you have a robust, secure, compliant and fully integrated solution for connecting to the Pensions Dashboards ecosystem. The Heywood ISP has been designed to be compliant with the requirements proposed by the DWP regulations, FCA consultation paper (CP22/3), TPR requirements and MaPS codes and standards.
To learn more about the Heywood Analytics suite of solutions, please contact us.
John Dale is Heywood's Pensions Dashboards Lead. His career began working in Heywood's Public Sector Unit back in May 1997 and he has a wide experience of working in different areas of Heywood, including software implementations, data conversions, image backlog conversions, shared service mergers and pre-sales.
