The first three pensions dashboards participants have completed their “full end-to-end” connection journey, Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) senior responsible owner, Iain Patterson, has revealed.

The three participants, Heywood, Legal and General, and Pension Fusion reached the final stage on Tuesday (4 March 2025), marking a “significant” milestone for the programme.

These organisations are part of a group of 19 (previously 20 but one organisation consolidated) volunteer participants (VPs) that have started their connection journeys.

These VPs include larger pension providers, schemes, and third-party organisations connecting on behalf of providers and schemes.

In order to reach this point, the participants completed operational acceptance testing, which is a final system check that ensures everything is working 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.

Patterson confirmed the news at a Work and Pensions Committee (WPC) meeting, stating: "We have three of the 19 VPs... who have completed their full end-to-end testing and are fully connected to the architecture. So this is really, really positive news."

Patterson also suggested that the vast number of remaining VPs will be connected and stated that the PDP are "highly confident" of their connection pace and ability to meet the October 2026 deadline.

Also commenting on this news, Money and Pensions Service (Maps) chief executive officer, Oliver Morley, 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 the development of the MoneyHelper pensions dashboard and of course working closely with industry on what is needed to pave the way for commercial dashboards.”

The first pension scheme, WTW's Lifesight Master Trust, has also since onboarded to the ecosystem using one of these three participants - Pension Fusion, which is a partnership between Equisoft and Lumera.

Lifesight UK head, Jelena Croad, highlighted this as a "really important milestone" on the journey towards making dashboards a reality for pension scheme members.

"Enabling people to see their pension pots in one place, in real time, and with clear financial information will make a huge difference to people’s awareness of their retirement finances," she stated.

Adding to this, Equisoft product director, Europe, Nick Meredith, said: “We are delighted that we can now go live with the successful development of our pensions dashboards Integrated Service Provider (ISP), suitable for any scheme or administrator. This is a significant milestone for pensions dashboards that highlights just how close we are to having schemes and importantly consumers, connected to the ecosystem.”

Lumera commercial director, and PASA Dashboards Working Group chair, Maurice Titley, added: “The central digital architecture is the linchpin of pensions dashboards, and establishing its connectivity with schemes marks a crucial milestone.

"Our deep collaboration with the PDP and the innovative services we have developed, such as our flexible matching solution, has helped drive this progress. We’re proud to have built an integrated service provider that the industry trusts, enabling us to make a lasting, positive impact on the future of UK dashboards.”

Also commenting on the broader connection news, Heywood CEO, Sian Jones, said: “We are delighted to have played a key role as a Pathfinder organisation.

"Our involvement has reinforced Heywood’s position at the forefront of pensions technology, and we are now fully prepared to support our customers in connecting to the PDP.

"This initiative is a crucial step in empowering savers with better access to their pensions information, and we’re proud to contribute to making it a success.”

In addition to this, the PDP confirmed that the standards for pension providers and schemes have been approved by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall.

Further updates are also expected later this year, as Patterson confirmed during the WPC session that the MoneyHelper dashboard would undergo “significant” testing through the summer of 2025, stressing the importance of a citizen-centric consumer approach.

Providing further information during the committee session, Morley, said that while the range of consumer testing is already quite considerable and “ramping up”, there is "much more to do”.

“Certainly, as we move forward and start to move into private beta and wider beta, well before October 2026, we will be able to take the public through the dashboard and really get them using it,” Morley continued.

---