Pensions dashboard testing reveals what employees really need

Pensions dashboards are moving closer to public launch in the UK, and early testing is showing how employees respond when they see their retirement savings brought together for the first time.

The Money and Pensions Service is continuing to work on making pensions dashboards possible in the UK, and creating a free, government-backed pensions dashboard (the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard).

Our focus so far has been centred on building the technology to achieve this and ensuring it can connect schemes to provide pensions information to users securely. Since working models are being tested, MaPS has started looking closely at how people respond to that technology.

The latest round of MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard testing is starting to reveal how people behave when they see all their pensions together in one place, and what support they may need afterwards.

For organisations thinking about how to engage with their staff around pensions and their financial wellbeing, these insights are a step forward in understanding how employees will respond to dashboards, and how best to support their ongoing retirement planning.

Some employees will discover lost pensions

One of the long-standing challenges that dashboards aim to address is that many employees have only a partial understanding of their retirement savings.

Pension benefits may be highly valued by employers but can often be largely invisible to employees. Multiple jobs, changing providers and lost pension pots make it difficult for many people to build a clear picture of their future retirement income.

Testing by MaPS suggests that the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard can help to address this. Participants have consistently reported positive experiences, particularly when they discover pensions they had forgotten about. They also acknowledge the usefulness of viewing multiple pensions all at once, rather than across different systems and logins.

However, testing has also also shown that the user journey doesn’t end at viewing pension information.

What employees want to do next

Another insight from this phase of testing surrounds the actions users say they intend to take after using the dashboard.

The most common responses include:

Reviewing and monitoring their pensions
Contacting providers
Considering pension consolidation
Thinking more seriously about retirement planning.

This demonstrates that the impact of pensions dashboards will go deeper into employees’ retirement planning.

Some users told us they wanted better understanding of their missing pensions. Others wanted more up-to-date valuations or to update personal information. Some said they will start considering whether they should consolidate multiple pension pots.

For employers, all of this feedback suggests that dashboards could instigate employees to become more engaged with retirement planning and, therefore, more likely to seek support.

Opportunities to strengthen financial wellbeing strategies

Pensions dashboards may also provide an opportunity to strengthen financial wellbeing programmes.

MaPS’ testing suggested that many users' initial focus is on understanding what they have and locating missing pensions. Over time, this awareness could create demand for broader conversations about retirement adequacy, contribution levels, consolidation and future planning.

As more employees gain access to a broader view of their pensions, organisations may see greater interest in retirement education and long-term financial planning support.

Rather than treating dashboards as a standalone pensions initiative, employers may achieve more by integrating them into broader financial wellbeing and retirement strategies.

Why employers should engage with testing now

The testing phase provides a chance to both help shape the service and understand how employees may respond when dashboards are launched more widely.

By encouraging participation in testing, organisations can gain insight into:

Which employee groups engage most readily
What questions arise after people see their pensions
Where pension knowledge gaps exist
What support employees are likely to seek
How existing financial wellbeing programmes could evolve.

Employers that start preparing for those conversations now will be in the strongest position to support a more informed and engaged workforce when dashboards become a reality.

The best way to stay informed about the latest updates in the development of pensions dashboards is to visit the Pensions Dashboards Programme website.