Peter Glancy, Head of Industry Development at Scottish Widows, said: “The absolute benefit to pension customers of having one easily accessible place to obtain all of the information about past and present pension plans and schemes is irrefutable. The current time and complexity in tracking this information down is off putting and having all the information in one place would encourage more engagement in pensions saving.
“But this must apply to all pension schemes. The scope of what should be included in the pensions dashboard has yet to be agreed but there is growing concern that it may start off with just personal pensions. ABI research in 2012 estimated that there was £2.2trn in UK pensions system of which £250bn was in Individual Pensions and £250bn in Group Personal Pensions. There is absolutely no point in just asking providers offering these schemes to be involved when they represent only 20% of the assets in pensions. We need to ensure workplace schemes and State Pensions are also included from day one.
“People using the dashboard as the source of truth regarding all of their pensions are easily going to lose confidence in the system if some schemes or plans are missing. To gain the greatest coverage a legislative intervention is most likely to be the push required to move this initiative along. An easily accessible, clear source of information on all retirement plans belonging to an individual would be a great opportunity to build confidence and engagement in planning for retirement.”
Scottish Widows is working closely with various industry bodies, including TISA, the ABI and Origo to understand the technological solutions and content required to produce a pensions dashboard that best suits the needs of customers.
Last year, Scottish Widows launched a Pensions Passport following calls for an alternative to traditional wake-up packs sent to customers in the months leading up to their retirement. The one-page document provides a summary of customers’ pension details, including the policy number, retirement date and value. The Pension Dashboard takes this a step further, giving people access to all of their pensions and savings in the same place.
|
