The Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) has argued that early engagement with the pensions industry is key to overcoming data challenges facing the pensions dashboard.

It noted that this was especially important for the swift inclusion of DB pension schemes on the platform.

SPP’s research found that 45 per cent of its members felt that the quality and availability of data was the largest challenge posed by the dashboard implementation.

This was by far the biggest concern amongst respondents, with 19 per cent citing the dashboard having enough functionality to be useful.

To overcome this issue, the SPP suggested that the building of the dashboard should take place in stages, starting with as broad a range of members as possible, and adding further data and functionality from that base.

The other challenges cited by its members were technical challenges and security of systems (13 per cent), the expectations of politicians, media and members (11 per cent), and lack of sufficient funding (6 per cent).

The organisation called for the vision for the dashboard to be more clearly defined and articulated to ensure that all parties have a common view of what is expected of the platform.

Despite the issues that have to be tackles, the SPP remained positive on the prospect of its implementation.

Its report stated: “The concept of a pensions dashboard is hard to argue with.

"With improvements in technology, a drive for greater transparency, an increase in scheme membership and a reduction in vesting periods, the ability to keep track of all schemes in a single place is clearly a good idea and perhaps somewhat overdue.

“The SPP fully supports the approach, but we do have concerns about how this will play out and the risks to the project.”

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