The Pensions Dashboards Programme will launch user testing early next year, with a planning group defining the testing requirements, how users will be invited, how many to test with and how information will be gathered and reported on. 

 

The PDP will work with its partners - which include the Department for Work and Pensions, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Pensions Regulator – to develop these plans, said senior policy manager David Marjoribanks speaking at a PDP progress update webinar on Wednesday. 

 

Marjoribanks said “the detail of how exactly we invite people will be worked out”, but testing will initially start with the MoneyHelper dashboard provided by the Money and Pensions Service itself, then be expanded to others who are connected. Over time, the PDP will “ramp testing up”, he said. 

 

Legislation for pensions dashboards sets out that before they become available to the public, users will have to be invited onto it by MaPS or on its behalf.  

 

“User testing is crucial for determining if the criteria have been met for the secretary of state to launch the dashboards,” such as whether pensions are ‘findable’, he explained. 

 

The sooner schemes connect to the dashboard infrastructure, the sooner the dashboards can be launched to the public, he noted, as this will allow more testing to take place. 

 

Several companies already volunteer for the PDP, including pension providers, administrators and third parties who help to connect schemes and administrators to dashboards, known as integrated service providers. There is currently no public service scheme in this group, and Chris Curry, the PDP’s principal, invited any public sector scheme to take part, especially those that plan to build a direct route to dashboards without use of a third-party provider. 

 

How soon do you expect your scheme to connect to the dashboards architecture?