First firms connect to pensions dashboard ecosystem

The Pensions Dashboards Programme has announced that the first three organisations have completed connection to the ecosystem.

After months of development and integration work, industry participants from Heywood, Legal and General and Pension Fusion passed the final stage on Tuesday. These organisations are part of a group of around 20 ‘volunteer participants’ who have all now started their connection journeys. The volunteer participants include larger pension providers and schemes and third-party organisations connecting on behalf of providers and schemes.

In order to complete their connection journey, the three organisations have completed ‘Operational Acceptance Testing’. This final system check ensures that everything works smoothly in a real-world setting, verifying things like backups, security, performance, and user access before the system is ready to connect providers and schemes.

This comes as the industry prepares for pension providers and schemes to connect in line with guidance from the Department for Work and Pensions from April 2025.

In a separate development, standards for pension providers and schemes have now been approved by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

The announcement of progress towards dashboards was made during an evidence session of the Work and Pensions Select Committee. Oliver Morley, CEO of the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), spoke to MPs about the work of his organisation and its Pensions Dashboards Programme. 

The evidence session covered the latest updates on preparations for wider industry connection, due for completion by October 2026, discussion of how the programme emerged successfully from reset last year and latest developments with the MoneyHelper pensions dashboard, which will be the first pensions dashboard where citizens will be able to see their pensions in one place.

Oliver Morley, CEO of MaPS, said: “Pensions dashboards will be a vital tool in boosting people’s engagement with their retirement savings, so the first three organisations completing their connection steps is an important moment. None of this would have been possible without significant co-operation and learning among industry, regulators and government partners.

“We’re firmly focused on taking pension providers and schemes through their connection journeys, beginning user testing to inform development of the MoneyHelper pensions dashboard and of course working closely with industry on what is needed to pave the way for commercial dashboards.”