Pensions - Articles - The need to modernise out-dated pensions

 Kate Smith, Head of Pensions at Aegon said: “The successful delivery of the prototype Pension Dashboard is an important first step towards allowing people to better engage with all of their pensions together and to take personal responsibility. The technology to ‘find’ all of an individual’s pensions and to display their future value is a core ingredient.

 “The next phase of moving towards a ‘live’ dashboard will reveal the extent to which schemes and providers have invested in modernising their pensions. Those who have not fully automated their record keeping, perhaps relying on paper, or with data gaps, will have these weaknesses exposed and come under pressure to take action. But even those running on older systems will be shown as lagging behind modern, digital pensions. The prototype shows pension dashboards will be a reality, and this should be a wake-up call to schemes and providers UK-wide to invest in technology and the enhanced customer experience this brings.

 “There is a real risk that schemes which don’t participate will damage the credibility of dashboards. To build customer confidence, we can’t afford to have glaring gaps. The Government needs to set a timetable, compelling all schemes to come on board, including providing pension values. If this runs beyond 2019, at the very least dashboards need to show all schemes the member has benefits in, even if the value is available only ‘on request’.”