The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP), the body launching pensions dashboards in the UK, has pushed back a key implementation deadline by five months from November to March 2027 after feedback from users.
The launch of Pensions Dashboards has been subject to years of delay and pushbacks. The idea was first proposed by the FCA in 2014.
In the latest delay, the PDP, part of the Money and Pensions Service (MAPS), said it had moved back a deadline for daily reporting via API by five months.
Originally the PDP wants pension providers to report daily via an API, an application that enables different software applications to communicate with each other.
The PDP originally proposed a mandatory deadline of 30 November 2026 for all parties involved in the pensions dashboards to adopt daily reporting to MAPS.
After a consultation with stakeholders, the PDP says this was now unrealistic and it will push back the deadline to 1 March 2027.
In an update to users the PDP said: “It remains our intention...that all parties should be able to report daily before the end of November 2026 and we remain fully committed to supporting this.
“However, we recognise the proposed timeframe was compressed and left little contingency in case of unforeseen issues arising throughout parties’ implementation that might cause delays. We acknowledge the many concerns raised in the consultation responses that, given uncertainties around the implementation process and how long it may take, the originally proposed deadline may carry a risk of some inadvertent non-compliance.
“We have listened to the concerns expressed that the proposed deadline would carry the risk that not all of industry may comfortably be able to expect to have completed implementation in time. It is clearly important that industry has a reasonable opportunity to comply. To reduce this risk, we intend to extend the implementation deadline. Subject to approval, we now intend the mandatory implementation deadline for daily reporting via API in accordance with the updated reporting standards to be 1 March 2027.”
The PDP added that to ensure MAPS and delivery partners have “visibility” of key reporting data as early as possible, it intends to require some manual reporting from Autumn 2026 for any directly connected organisations that have not yet been able to implement daily reporting. Manual reporting is the submission of data via file upload.
The PDP recent published updated reporting standards v2.2 in draft and intend to seek Secretary of State and Department for Communities (Northern Ireland) approval for these updated reporting standards during 2026, and to subsequently publish the approved updated reporting standards as formal standards, with a coming-into-force date of 1 March 2027.
Over 70m pension records are now connected to the Pensions Dashboards ecosystem. The records come from 1,500 pension providers and schemes who have connected, including State Pension data.
An interim report from the Pension Commission on the state of retirement saving in the UK last week highlighted the potential for Dashboards to change the behavioural dynamics of pension consolidation and boost pension saving through better engagement.
The Government has yet to announce when Pensions Dashboards will be launched but the date is expected to some time in the 2027/28 financial year.