View all your pensions in one place

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On average, people have 11 jobs during their working lifetime# and if each of these employers pays into a pension scheme, they’ll also accumulate a number of pension scheme arrangements, so keeping track of them could become a challenge.

The proposed launch of a brand new Pension Dashboard would make this task much simpler. The aim being to enable savers to view all their pension savings, including their state pension details, in just one place. Currently this isn’t possible. It’s also estimated that there is around £400 million# in unclaimed pension savings and having a dashboard will help support the Government’s efforts to join the two up and give people greater access.

The idea in principle is positive news for the UK and is something that is operational in some countries already. Concerns have surfaced in the UK though, primarily due to the high number of pension providers in existence. Most operate different systems and IT infrastructure, so creating one dashboard to fit all is likely to be a challenge, especially for the older pension providers who no longer support new business or offer online functions, so the operational costs for some could be substantial.

In September the Treasury announced that they had secured agreement from 11 pension providers to launch a prototype of the dashboard by March 2017. This is somewhat earlier than originally proposed in the Budget (2019), so it will be interesting to see how this develops and how comprehensive the design will be.

There is much work to be done in a short space of time; to marry up data from different pension providers in different formats and with individuals’ retirement details, but if it can be delivered as promised it could make a huge difference to people keen to take control of their retirement plans.

In the interim and whilst this is being developed, you can still trace any old pensions you may have by using the free Pension tracing service. This is a register of all workplace pension schemes. If it’s a personal pension arrangement which you’re trying to trace, you’ll need to gather all your information and instead contact The Pensions Advisory Service, also for free.

You can also obtain a state pension forecast here: https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension and it’s surprisingly simple to do. We have covered the details in a previous article which you can view here.

If you’re looking for retirement advice, contact any of our advisers at any of our office locations on 0808 144 5575 or email: help@armstrongwatson.co.uk.

# Source: You.gov