The first phase of pensions dashboards testing has passed the halfway mark, with early findings pointing to strong user satisfaction and a broadly positive experience, according to the latest progress update from the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP).

The update from the Money and Pensions Service (Maps) confirmed that two rounds of moderated consumer testing have now been completed, involving 24 users across a mix of genders, ages, regions and self-reported access needs.

While this initial cohort had higher-than-average pensions knowledge, reflecting targeted recruitment from the pensions and finance sector, Maps said the feedback had nonetheless been encouraging.

In particular, users reported that the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard generally met their expectations, with high levels of trust in both GOV.UK and MoneyHelper branding.

Strong match rates were also observed, with most users able to locate some or all of the pensions they expected.

However, a small number of pending or possible matches were returned, prompting users to express uncertainty about what this meant and the next steps, highlighting an area for further refinement.

Indeed, Maps said the early findings had surfaced a series of “pain points” of varying severity, which are now being addressed internally and in collaboration with data providers.

Further work is also ongoing, as the group confirmed that planning for rounds three and four of testing is already "well underway", and that it is also working to enable and be in a position to test the other four remaining pension types.

This has included close engagement with industry groups to understand the nuances of how different types of pension data flow through the ecosystem, and how best to present that information to users.

Work to connect to the dashboards ecosystem has also continued at pace amid the recent testing, as the update confirmed that more than 60 million workplace and private pension records, over 75 per cent of the total, are now connected to the dashboards ecosystem, as previously confirmed to Pensions Age.

Maps CEO, Oliver Morley, said: “Since the last progress update, there has been so much work towards ensuring people will be able to view all their pensions together online and in one place.

"Consumer testing is well underway, with positive feedback from users. We have gone from announcing the first organisation completing connection to being able to say that three-quarters of records are connected.

“We have reached this point thanks to so many individuals and teams from government, regulators and industry, putting us in a great position heading into 2026.”

Despite the focus on the MoneyHelper dashboard, the PDP emphasised that it is also continuing work on the development and implementation pathway for private sector dashboards, having held two industry roundtables earlier this year to shape subsequent pre-discovery work

It clarified, however, that the eventual availability date for private-sector dashboards will be determined by factors including safety, security and reliability, overseen by the Department for Work and Pensions, Maps, and regulators.

And the expectations for private sector or commercial dashboards are growing, as analysis from the PDP Advisory Group revealed strong support for a number of potential future enhancements to dashboards.

In particular, the advisory group found strong backing for a degree of transactional capability with pensions dashboards.

However, the PDP clarified that, currently, this feature is firmly outside the scope of the programme, as well as the “new” FCA private sector pensions dashboard regulatory permissions.

This was not the only potential concern highlighted by the advisory group, as it also argued that there is a "missed opportunity" given the exclusion of pensions in payment means that all versions of pensions dashboards will have limited use to those savers who have already started taking benefits.

In addition to this, it suggested that facilitating delegated access by the saver should be considered as a fast follower feature to enable savers to actively seek advice (with ease).

On top of this, it said that enhancing day one with additional data such as value for money (VFM) data should also be considered to help savers get a simple view of the quality of each found pension, side by side.

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