Interactive pensions dashboards a boon: ABI

New research by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has found that pensions dashboards, which will show savers all their pension pots in one place, present a once in a generation opportunity to help people engage with their pension. But the ABI is recommending that the forthcoming legislation and regulatory regime should allow dashboards to be interactive to meet younger age groups’ digital demands. Current proposals will only allow users to see their pension pots in one place, effectively a read-only service. Users will not be able to take any further action such as modelling changing their pension contribution and estimating the impact this will have on their retirement income.

The user research was conducted by Britain Thinks and showed how pensions dashboards will work. It is the biggest quantitative survey conducted on pensions dashboards in the UK. The research found:

• Over 60 percent of people said that dashboards will help them better understand their pension.
• The Government and regulators are expected to consult on pensions dashboards regulations in the coming weeks. The ABI recommends that legislation should be future proof and enable providers to make dashboards interactive.

Yvonne Braun, director of Long-Term Savings at the Association of British Insurers, said: “Our new research is clear: pensions dashboards will be very popular. But most people want to be able to actively engage with their pensions on dashboards, rather than use a read-only, static website.

“To ensure dashboards can truly empower people to engage with their pension savings, they must offer interactive features. Dashboard providers have to be able to innovate to meet the needs of younger age groups, and the legislation and the regulatory regime must allow for this.”