Pensions dashboards: guidance

Information to provide to members

You will have to supply the following information to your members via pensions dashboards.

Administrative and Signpost data
Value data

Administrative and signpost data

Administrative data includes, the scheme name, the dates the member was in it, the name and contact details for the administrator and, if available, the employer’s name. You should ensure these are consistent with the information you provide in other communications. You will also need to provide a member’s date of birth to enable dashboards to show the time to retirement (the date of birth itself will not be shown on dashboards).

Signpost data is also referenced as ‘additional data’ in the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) data standards. These are links to websites where the member can see other useful information about the scheme, such as information on costs and charges, the scheme’s statement of investment principles and the scheme’s implementation statement.

You must return the above information immediately after a view request is received.

Value data

You need to provide details of how much pension the member has built up already and how much they may have when they retire (their ‘estimated retirement income’). The value data that you need to supply will depend on the status of the member and the benefit type. The table at the bottom of this page provides a high-level overview of what data should be provided for each benefit type.

You must understand what value information you need to provide to your members, ensuring it is accurate and available within the timings set out in the Pensions Dashboards Regulations.

You must provide value data immediately if it is based on a statement provided to a member in the last 13 months, or a calculation made for the member in the last 12 months (for example if there was a previous request made on a dashboard).

Where this is not the case, you will only have three working days to return value data, along with the relevant contextual information, where all benefits provided to the member are defined contribution (DC) benefits. You will only have 10 working days in all other cases, such as defined benefits (DB) and hybrid benefits. Therefore, it may be more efficient to put in place a process to revalue pensions annually or automate the calculation of values in your administration system. You should work with your administrator to ensure that the right processes and resource are in place to meet the deadlines for any values that need calculating on demand. As good practice, you may want to identify how you will manage more complex scenarios such as members with late retirement or hybrid benefits.

If your scheme has members with benefits across different sections or multiple benefit types, for example, a DB element and an AVC value, you may present each benefit to the member using a different illustration date. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that the policy intent is that illustration dates should align at a benefit level. This means that:

the accrued and projected values for each DB or DC benefit should be calculated on the same date for each benefit
the DB benefit for a member can be calculated on a different day to their DC benefit, as these are different benefits
if a member has two separate AVC arrangements they can also be calculated on different dates to each other, as they are different benefits

In determining values to return, you should consider alignment with other communications. For example, if you return information different from that issued to the member in their annual benefit statement, you should consider how best to explain this difference to members. You may wish to proactively communicate any differences to your members, for example in their statement, on your member portal, or in a regular newsletter.

MaPS has published supplementary guidance on benefit illustrations, which you can use alongside the data standards to improve your understanding of returning value data.

Contextual information

You must provide contextual information to help your members understand the value data displayed to them via the dashboard. This includes the following:

The date to which the value relates (the ‘as at’ date/’illustration’ date).
The date from which a benefit is payable.
Whether there is a spouse’s or civil partner’s survivor benefit attached to the pension.
Whether the benefits would increase in payment.
Why value data is not available.

In some circumstances, you may not be able to provide value information to members immediately. Most commonly, this will be because you need to calculate this to return within three days (DC benefits) or 10 days (all other benefits). In this case, you should return the unavailable codes DCC (DC benefits) or DBC (other benefits) so the member knows how long they will need to wait before they can view their value information via the dashboard.

There are other circumstances where you may be unable to return values. Where this is the case, you must use the unavailable codes specified in the reporting standards, which include: Ref 2.004, “contact scheme”: Use this code to indicate there has been a match but the user should contact the pension provider/scheme before it provides any or all the user’s pensions information. You should only use this code in exceptional circumstances for example if a potential fraud is being investigated, or a legal challenge is under way.
Ref 2.006, “temporary system error”: Use this code to explain to the user that some or all of the pensions information is not available due to a temporary system error and they should re-try shortly.
Ref 2.301 and Ref 2.401, for the following codes:
- ANO: Benefits cannot currently be provided as information is required from a third party (for example, a final leaving salary from the employer for a DB benefit).
- MEM: Benefits cannot currently be provided because there is an action or decision outstanding from the user.
- NET: User is a new member of the scheme as a result of a transfer in and value pension information is not yet available.
- NEW: User is a new member of the scheme and value data is not yet available.
- TRN: Transaction outstanding that affects the value.

You should work with your administrator or connection provider to identify where you may need to use these codes. You should keep a clear record of your rationale for their use and the number of members impacted.

The use of the codes does not remove your duty to return information, and you will need to be able to demonstrate that you have an appropriate process in place to provide your members with the missing information in a timely manner. Where there is a severe delay in providing the value information to your members, you should consider if you need to report this to us. See: Assess whether to report a breach of the law.

PASA has published guidance that you may wish to consider when deciding how you will use the codes provided within the data standards.

DC values

DC projected values should be calculated in line with the Financial Reporting Council actuarial standards (known as AS TM1) for statutory money purchase illustrations. DC accrued annual income should also be calculated by reference to AS TM1, but leaving out the impact of future contributions and fund growth. The DWP has developed guidance on how to calculate the annualised accrued value for DC schemes, including available methods. See annualised accrued value calculations for pensions dashboards.

You do not have to provide a projected value (using codes Ref 2.301 DCHA/DCHP in the data standards) if the member is within two years of retirement or where all the following apply:

the accrued value (to money purchase benefits/hybrid benefits) was less than £5,000 when last calculated and provided to the member
no contributions (including transfers and pension credits) have been made since
the scheme has informed the member that further projections will not be given unless further contributions are made

You can still provide a projected value in these situations if you choose to.

DB values

You should calculate DB values in line with scheme rules, without taking into account possible increases in earnings for active members. You should only factor revaluation rates into projections where these are guaranteed under scheme rules.

However, for the first two years of being connected, you can provide a simplified calculation of deferred benefits revalued using an adjustment method you consider to be appropriate (for example, using inflation figures). You can only do this if providing a value in line with scheme rules would be disproportionately expensive or take too long, and you are confident the alternative value provided would not be misleading. You must also confirm in the information you provide that you are using this basis for calculation, in line with the data standards. During these two years you should deliver the data and system improvements required to be able to provide a value in line with scheme rules.

If the member’s DB benefits have different tranches, you can choose to either provide one single value (showing a common retirement date) or separate values for each tranche (with their own retirement date).

Collective defined contribution (CDC) values

You must provide an accrued value and a projected value for active members and a projected value for deferred members. You should provide your members with the value calculated on a central estimate basis (“as scheme estimated”).

Public service pension schemes

Public service schemes, excluding judiciary and local government schemes, will need to provide two sets of values that reflect the McCloud remediation process – one for each option they can select at retirement.

Exemptions – Schemes in PPF assessment/wind-up/buyout

If your scheme, or a section of your scheme, goes into PPF assessment after you’ve connected to the digital architecture, you will need to remain connected. However, you are only required to provide administrative data and messaging confirming the scheme, or section, is in PPF assessment using the appropriate codes in the data standards.

Schemes, or sections of schemes, in the process of winding up will need to connect to the digital architecture and provide administrative data, but do not have to provide value information to members (though they can do so voluntarily). If your scheme has entered into a buyout process, but has not yet triggered wind-up, then you should still meet the requirements for providing value information.

Exemptions – new members

For new members who request view data within the first three months of joining the scheme, you will need to provide the administrative data as soon as you can and no later than three months after the member joined the scheme. You are required to provide the value data, along with relevant contextual information, as soon as you can. This should be no later than when you first produce a statement of the members’ benefits for them, or 12 months from the end of the first full scheme year they have been in the scheme, whichever is soonest.

Quality of scheme member value data

You must ensure that your scheme member data is of sufficient quality to enable you to provide your matched members with accurate and recent value data within the timescales set out in the Pensions Dashboards Regulations. Data will need to be digitised so that it can be returned through the digital architecture. You should test the accuracy of the data items you need to calculate accurate values. Our scheme member data quality guidance provides further information on the actions you can take to conduct a robust assessment of your scheme member data quality Assessing member data quality.

You must ensure that calculations are undertaken and recorded correctly. You should assure yourself that appropriate controls are built into your administrator’s calculation processes. This may include testing the accuracy of a sample of calculations, building in additional checks for complex cases or even commissioning third parties to do end-to-end testing of your administrator’s processes.

If you have multiple sections with different administrators, you need to work with each of them to understand and agree who will be providing value information, and how they will provide it. You should seek assurance from all of them that there are appropriate controls around calculations. You can find more information on working with employers and other data providers in our scheme member data quality guidance.

Where data quality improvement areas are identified, you need to put a data quality improvement plan in place to document the actions you will take to improve data. You should also identify whether any changes are needed to your systems and processes to ensure you can maintain the ongoing quality of your data. These may include corrective actions such as training or amending processes to ensure that problems do not reoccur.

Table: Value data

Benefit / member type	Accrued value (information regarding the pension or benefits built up to date by the member)		Projected value (information regarding the pension, benefits or other income the member may receive based on continued contributions, earnings or service)
Benefit / member type	Pot	Annual income	Pot	Annual income
DC	Yes	Yes	Optional	Yes (unless the members fall into the exemptions to this)
Active DB including public service (Public service schemes may present two blocks of data)	If benefit is designed to provide a lump sum	Yes	No	Yes
Deferred DB including public service (Public service schemes may present two blocks of data)	If benefit is designed to provide a lump sum	Yes (simplified option in certain circumstances)	No	No
Active cash balance	Yes	Yes (unless the sole purpose is to provide a lump sum on retirement)	Yes	Yes (unless the sole purpose is to provide a lump sum on retirement)
Deferred cash balance	Yes	Yes (unless the sole purpose is to provide a lump sum on retirement)	No	No
Active collective DC	No	Yes	No	Yes
Deferred collective DC	No	No	No	Yes
Hybrid benefit	Where the benefit is calculated by reference to both DB and DC elements, you can return one or more sets of values, which may be based on DB, DC, cash balance or collective DC methodology depending on which you consider best represents the members’ benefits.

View a printable version of the whole guide