A recent poll from the Society of Pensions Professionals found over a third (39%) of respondents said the capacity to handle pensions dashboard queries was their biggest concern. With the deadline for connecting to dashboards coming up in October, RSM UK says pensions dashboards represents a significant opportunity to address the current lack of public engagement with pensions.

Andrew Aston, Pensions Audit Director at RSM UK said: “While we welcome the new Dashboard Industry Guide, the industry’s main concern about query volumes assumes that the public will be aware of the dashboards, and actively seek to use them. Yet there is no clarity on the plans to drive public awareness of pensions dashboards. This will be the biggest change for pensions savers since auto-enrolment in 2012. It represents an exciting opportunity to address the current lack of understanding around adequate pensions saving and encourage people to check what’s in their various pots.

“It’s therefore crucial that a widespread communications campaign is in place, yet so far, we have not heard any detail on plans for this critical public awareness piece on which the success of dashboards depends. While there is a lot of news on the successful connection of schemes and the testing programme for the MoneyHelper dashboard in the pensions trade press, there has been very little coverage in wider media. It seems that as an industry we run the risk of talking to ourselves. Enormous time and investment has gone into developing dashboards, so it’s crucial this programme succeeds, and clear communication is key. It would be a shame to waste these efforts to improve public engagement with pensions if insufficient time is given to maximising publicity around it.”

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