Articles - Pensions dashboards are schemes ready for the next step

By Lucy Stone, Pensions Dashboard - Business Lead, TPR

But connection is just the beginning. Once a scheme is connected it must be able to find dashboard users in its records and return recent and accurate information to them about the value of their pensions.

In August 2025, we started reaching out to the largest occupational pension schemes to assess their data preparations. Together, they cover over 80% of all occupational pension records in scope. These schemes demonstrated a strong focus on data, and we identified many examples of good practice, though there remains some inconsistency in approach and progress.

Today we publish a report into the findings of this engagement. This highlights that:

Most large schemes are already connected and have increased their focus on data.

Personal data work is ongoing – many schemes are still improving the quality of the data used to identify dashboard users, putting in place processes to resolve ‘possible’ matches (where a dashboard user may be a member but this needs confirming), and processes to review and refine their matching criteria.

Value data preparations lag behind personal data, with significant work still required to ensure information sent to members is accurate, up-to-date and dashboard-ready.

Data quality controls exist but must mature, with schemes needing to embed data improvement, monitoring and assurance into business-as-usual activity rather than treating it as a one-off exercise. High-quality data underpins good member outcomes, not just dashboard compliance – it is fundamental to running a scheme well.

We have also updated our dashboards guidance. The changes highlight good practice, the progress made by MaPS on the digital architecture and provide clarity on areas we often asked about. We now provide two checklists to help schemes prepare for dashboards: one for schemes which are still working to connect, and one for schemes which are already connected.

For many large schemes, preparation was less advanced on value data than personal data. Only a few schemes had received a specific value readiness report from their providers.

Many schemes do not hold recent data for members who don’t receive annual statements and are working to revalue these so they can then focus on a small number of complex cases that will need to be calculated ‘on demand’ (when that member uses a dashboard). Schemes will need to make sure they agree with their administrators the processes for calculating values on demand within the statutory timescales.

Defined benefit (DB) and hybrid schemes are most likely to have out of date value data, so next month we will reach out to a sample of these schemes to understand how they are preparing value data.

Early feedback has been positive, but testing is also throwing up issues which MaPS, working with industry, can resolve. These range from technical problems which means sometimes data isn’t flowing through from schemes to the dashboard as it should, to dashboards users being unsure of how to interpret the information they are shown.

This testing phase is important to make sure dashboards can fulfil their potential in helping people to plan and save for retirement. But for schemes, this phase is also an opportunity to test data and operations in a live environment with real users, but at lower volumes. Schemes can use testing to understand:

MaPS will continue to share insights from user testing through their website and newsletters, and we encourage schemes to keep up to date with these.

If schemes aren’t connected by 31 October 2026, they can expect to hear from us. Where we see wilful or reckless non-compliance, we will take a robust enforcement approach.

We call on schemes to keep up the good work. The public are counting on you to help them plan and save for a secure retirement.