Time for a brave new online pension world
Imagine a free, user-friendly, online service that offers you information about all of your pension savings at your fingertips, available in your own home and on your mobile.
That’s why the government has championed the pensions dashboard, harnessing digital to make planning for retirement easier in the digital age.
As we all know, most parts of our daily lives have been transformed by the internet and digital technology.
If we can pay the bills and manage our bank accounts at the touch of a screen, why shouldn’t we be able to keep on top of one of the most important investments any of us will ever make online too?
The pensions dashboard is an innovation whose time has come. It will bring the pensions industry and its customers’ experience into the twenty-first century and beyond.
We are all living and staying healthy for longer, and all of us need to plan long-term for retirement.
A transformation is taking place today, as record numbers of people are automatically enrolled into workplace pensions.
And with young people at the heart of this quiet revolution, it’s even more important that we bring pensions into our digital devices.
This government’s radical pension reforms are supporting millions more people into saving for a secure retirement.
Automatic enrolment has helped to reverse years of decline in pension saving. In 2012, the proportion of eligible employees with a workplace pension was just 55 per cent. In 2017, it was 84 per cent.
The pensions revolution has been embraced by a whole new generation of savers, with young people adopting long-term saving. In 2012, only two in 10 had a workplace pension. Now eight in 10 of eligible private sector workers aged 22-29 are enrolled in a workplace pension.
And with record female employment, the proportion of eligible women in private sector jobs saving some of their hard-earned pay packets in workplace pensions has doubled from 40 per cent to 80 per cent.
At the same time, financial services have become much more accessible online. Pension providers can now take the next great leap forward in our pensions revolution to help people plan for life after work.
Much more can be done to help people, young and old alike, make the most of their pension opportunities. Many will have multiple pots as they move jobs over the course of their working lives.
We want to give customers a clear understanding of how much they have in their retirement pots and, ultimately, what they can expect to have to live on in retirement.
Pensions dashboards are therefore a great idea. There is broad support for it from consumer groups such as Which? to pension providers and across political parties.
The government will facilitate this ambitious project, while the pensions industry will foot the bill. We will do this in a way that ensures that data is secure and safeguarded but accessible to the individual. Consumer protection and safeguarding data will be paramount.
Greater online transparency will boost savers’ comprehension, and also consumers’ confidence and understanding of long-term saving.
We want Britain to be the best place in the world to grow old, and for people to get all the help they need to get ready for retirement. The pensions dashboard will transform retirement savings forever.