It has been reported that the Work and Pensions Secretary, Esther McVey, is planning to ditch the ‘pensions dashboard’, a tool to let savers see all their pension pots in one place.
Jonathan Watts-Lay, Director, WEALTH at work, comments;
“These plans are causing much debate with much support for the roll-out of the pensions dashboard to go ahead. After all, anything which helps individuals to understand what pension savings they have is a good thing but it should be viewed with caution as it were to go ahead, it could have many limitations.
For example, it’s important for individuals to think holistically when planning their retirement income as it’s no longer just about pensions but all types of savings such ISAs and share schemes and so on. As the dashboard will only consider pensions, there are clear gaps here.
Also, unless the government regulates this to ensure all providers are forced to take part many members may find that the dashboard doesn’t include their provider.
Whilst being able to view their entire pension saving in one place may be helpful, what members really need is support on how best to take income from all their retirement savings, and how to do this as tax efficiently as possible.
The dashboard whilst potentially useful, is very much only part of the picture and clearly does not get employers and trustees ‘off the hook’ for putting in place an appropriate retirement service which includes financial education, guidance and regulated advice, to help ensure employees and members do not make poor decisions.”