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Making workplace pensions work

Pensions dashboards: guidance

Overview

Published: 22 June 2022

Last updated: 23 April 2026

See all updates

23 April 2026

In response to the latest guidance from the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), progress with the build of the central digital architecture, clarification of policy intent from DWP, feedback from the industry, and ongoing developments and learnings, we’ve made further updates to our Pensions Dashboards guidance to help you understand and take the necessary actions to comply with your duties.

18 June 2025

In response to the latest guidance from the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), feedback from the industry, and ongoing developments, we’ve made further updates to our Pensions Dashboards guidance to help you stay on track to compliance.

17 December 2024

Updates throughout the guidance to bring it in line with external developments and address industry feedback.

12 April 2024

Link to DWP guidance on annualised accrued value calculations added to information to provide to members.

26 March 2024

Rewrite of when your scheme needs to connect with dashboards to cover the new staged timeline for schemes to connect.

14 July 2023

Failing to comply with pensions dashboards duties updated to include information on how trustees and scheme managers will be expected to demonstrate that they have had regard to the guidance on staging timelines.

8 June 2023

Rewrite of when your scheme needs to connect with dashboards to cover the new deadline and staging timeline for schemes to connect. 

15 March 2023

Significant updates throughout the guidance to incorporate the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 and Money and Pensions Service standards.

20 July 2022

Updated guidance following government response to consultation on Draft Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022.

As a pension trustee or scheme manager, you will need to connect with and supply pensions information to members through dashboards. This is your duty required by the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has made corresponding rules for FCA-regulated pension providers in respect of personal and stakeholder pension schemes.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has set out a staged timetable for schemes to connect to the dashboard digital architecture. Schemes are asked to connect over time according to their size and type. All schemes in scope must be connected by 31 October 2026 at the latest.

There is significant work involved to comply with your dashboards duties, and you may need to engage third-party providers to help you with this work, such as an administrator or an integrated service provider (ISP). You should work with your advisers to assess the impact of the changes and plan how you will meet your dashboard duties.

We will update this guidance when necessary to reflect further developments and the industry’s experience with dashboards. Find out more about how to stay up to date with developments.

What are pensions dashboards?

Pensions dashboards are digital services – apps, websites or other tools – which people will be able to use to see their pension information in one place. This includes information on their State Pension. Pensions dashboards will not show pensions that are already being paid.

A person will use dashboards to issue a search of the records of all connected pension schemes, to confirm whether or not they are a member. For simplicity in this guidance, we use the term ‘user’ to refer to users of the dashboards, and ‘member’ to refer to those who have been matched by schemes.

Dashboards aim to help members plan for retirement by:

  • finding their various pensions and reconnecting them with any lost pension pots
  • understanding the value of their pensions in terms of an estimated retirement income

Pensions dashboards: short films

Why do members need pensions dashboards? We’ve been speaking to members about their pensions experiences and how dashboards will help them in their planning.

The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) will develop and host its own pensions dashboard on the MoneyHelper website. The MoneyHelper dashboard will be the first to be available to the public. Other organisations will also be able to develop and host private sector dashboards at a later stage. This will be subject to approval by the FCA. MaPS has sought feedback from industry on their proposed approach to deliver private sector dashboards.

You can find out more on the Pensions Dashboards Programme website.

You can find out more about the digital architecture on the MaPS website.

Which schemes are in scope?

Dashboards duties apply to the trustees or scheme managers of:

  • registrable occupational pension schemes with 100 or more relevant members
  • public service pension schemes

What constitutes a relevant member?

A relevant member is an active, deferred or pension credit member. In addition, members who have taken an uncrystallised funds pension lump sum (UFPLS) are considered in scope for dashboards.

Which members are out of scope?

Members which meet any of the following criteria are not relevant members and are therefore out of scope:

  • are receiving benefits (pensioners)
  • have cashed in their benefits to provide a tax-free lump sum, purchase an annuity or drawdown income
  • have taken ‘partial retirement’ in respect of a benefit
  • hold ‘dual benefits’ within a scheme, for example a DC and DB benefit, and has accessed either one of the benefits
  • hold different periods of pensionable service within the same scheme (for example where they have left and then rejoined an employer) and they have  accessed the pension accrued in one of these periods 

Common in and out of scope scenarios

  • If your scheme’s main administration is in the UK, it is in scope of the regulations, even if some sections are administered outside the UK. However, if your scheme’s main administration is based outside of the UK, it is not in scope.
  • If your scheme is in the process of buying out, you will remain in scope until the buy-out is complete and the number of relevant members falls to zero. For example, when all relevant members of the occupational pension scheme have their own insurance policy. The duty to find and return the information for these members will move to the buy-out provider who will be subject to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) regulation.
  • If your scheme had 100 or more relevant members at the scheme year end between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 but then dropped under 100 relevant members because some of them retired or transferred out, you are still in scope and will be until the number of relevant members falls to zero.
  • If your scheme is in the process of winding up, you are still in scope, unless the number of relevant members falls to zero. However, there are some exemptions to the information to provide to your members.
  • If the whole of your scheme starts an assessment period with the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) before your connection deadline, you will be out of scope of the regulations for the duration of the assessment. However, if any sections of your scheme are not in assessment, the entire scheme is still in scope, but there are some exemptions to the information to provide to your members.
  • If your scheme has members with additional voluntary contribution (AVC) arrangements, you need to work with the AVC provider(s) to identify which members are relevant, based on the scheme’s trust deed and rules, and the specific AVC arrangement details.

You will be required to:

You will need to do all the above in compliance with standards published from time to time by MaPS and have regard to the DWP’s guidance on connection, considering the:

  • staged timetable
  • guidance issued by MaPS
  • guidance issued by The Pensions Regulator (TPR)

Working with advisers and providers

You need to work with several organisations to comply with your dashboards duties. Typically, this involves providers assisting you with your data preparation and those assisting you with connection to the digital architecture (referred to in this guidance as ‘connection providers’), which may include your administrator, software providers, integrated service providers (ISP), actuary, and legal advisers. It could also include employers (to improve the availability and quality of personal data) and external data providers (for example AVC providers).

Early and regular engagement with relevant advisers and providers will help them plan their workload and improve their ability to support you. Additionally, if you need to procure new services or update existing contracts you should address this work at an early point to avoid delaying your preparations.

The dashboards duties apply to trustees and scheme managers. While you can use third parties to help you meet your duties, you are ultimately accountable for ensuring that your scheme is connected to dashboards on time and that you are (and remain) compliant with all the requirements. This includes ensuring that your data is of sufficient quality to enable you to find your members, and provide them with accurate information within legislative timelines.

You should be making any decisions required by your providers to progress their work in a timely manner, including agreeing actions to prepare your data. You also need to put in place robust ways to monitor progress. Where your third parties are supporting other clients, you should make sure they have enough capacity to deliver the services required so you can meet your legal obligations. For more information, see our Code of Practice, which includes a section on the selection, appointment, management and replacement of any suppliers.

Discussion points with third parties

Here is a list of areas that you may wish to discuss with your third-party providers. There will be more points that are specific to your scheme. We encourage you to keep a record of your enquiries, the response and any decisions made.

  • Roles and responsibilities. It is important to be clear about the roles and responsibilities of those who are supporting you to meet your duties, and ensure there are no gaps in the process.
  • Awareness of compliance requirements. When delegating any work to third parties, make sure they are aware of the relevant compliance requirements, for example the standards set by MaPS. You should also make sure that there are robust processes in place for them to implement new or changed requirements in a timely manner (such as changes in the standards).
  • Costs. When negotiating contracts with service providers you need to ensure you understand what is included and where there may be additional costs, for example:
    • the cost of initial connection and any ongoing service fee to maintain connection
    • if costs are fixed for the scheme or per member and if there are additional costs for specific categories of your membership
    • the cost of any work to assess, improve and maintain the quality of your scheme member data quality
    • the cost of any work to ensure ongoing compliance with the standards or guidance published by MaPS or regulators
    • any additional costs associated with testing for example testing of your matching criteria by your ISP
    • any additional costs associated with queries for example in resolving possible matches
    • whether there is any additional charge for any cyber related liabilities/requirements

You may also wish to review our Administration of a pension scheme guidance which includes a section on administration contracts.

  • Data quality review and data quality improvement plan. Your scheme member data must be of sufficient quality to allow you to meet your dashboards duties. It is vital that you work with your administrators to review your data and, where required, set up and deliver improvement plans within a reasonable timescale. You should check with your administrator if this work will entail additional costs. Further information on preparing data for dashboards is also provided in the connection, matching and value sections.
  • Monitoring progress. You should have a process in place to receive regular reports in line with the legal requirements and MaPS standards and other information you need to understand if you are meeting your duties. We recommend that pensions dashboards are a regular agenda item at your board meeting to monitor progress. Risks to delivery should be reflected on your risk register where appropriate.

MaPS standards

MaPS has set the standards relating to the provision of data through pensions dashboards and the digital architecture needed to support this. These standards provide the rules and controls that will facilitate the smooth ongoing connection to pensions dashboards. MaPS has published its approved standards, which schemes and providers must use to connect to the dashboards architecture and facilitate ongoing connection and associated reporting.

You (trustees and scheme managers) need to be aware of the requirements in these standards and ensure that your connection providers and scheme administrators are meeting them. You should remain alert to further requirements or changes. You should also, make sure that connection providers and administrators are closely aware of any developments in this area, and that they can implement changes to processes and systems safely, promptly and effectively.

The topics covered in these standards are as follows. 

  • Data standards: set out in detail how schemes receive data from the dashboards architecture and return appropriate data to dashboards. You should be working with your scheme administrators to deliver any required improvements to your scheme members’ personal and value data. You should ensure that the data is accurate, accessible and in line with these standards. Additionally, you need to work with your administrator to decide how you will use the codes in the standards to provide your members with relevant contextual information, for example where information is not currently available. More detail can be found in Preparing data for matching and for value data and Information to provide members.
  • Reporting standards: set out information you need to ensure is generated, recorded and supplied, so that MaPS and TPR can monitor the effectiveness of pensions dashboards and compliance with regulations. You should be familiar with the record-keeping requirements set out in the standards and work with your third-party providers to ensure you are complying with them. Find more detail in record-keeping.
  • Technical standards: set out how pension schemes (or their connection providers) interface with the dashboards architecture and user-facing pension dashboards. You should be seeking assurance from your connection providers that they are meeting these standards.
  • Code of connection: sets out the connection, technical, security, service and operational standards you need to meet to connect to the digital architecture. This includes the timeframes you have to return data and the availability of the scheme’s connection to dashboards. You should be seeking assurance from your connection providers that they are meeting these standards.

Pensions dashboards: short films
Why do savers need pensions dashboards? We’ve been speaking to savers about their pensions experiences and how dashboards will help them in their planning.

View a printable version of the whole guide
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