The government has published guidance on applying for a deferral of the pensions dashboards staging deadline, amid the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 officially coming into force from today.

The dashboards regulations were initially laid in parliament on 17 October and were granted approval by MPs and peers in November, in what was highlighted as a "major step" in formalising dashboard duties.

Although the staging deadlines for relevant pension schemes are getting closer, the regulations allow schemes to apply to defer their deadline by up to 12 months in some specific circumstances.

The guidance therefore aims to explain this application process, outlining the timing and evidence required to receive a deferral.

In particular, the guidance explained that trustees or managers of relevant occupational pension schemes can apply for a deferral if they can provide evidence to show that they embarked on a programme to transfer the data held by the pension scheme to a new administrator before the coming into force of the regulations.

Alternatively, pension schemes will be required to show evidence that they entered into a contract containing an obligation to retender the administration of the scheme and the timetable for this is reasonable and conflicts with the staging deadline for the scheme.

The trustee or manager will additionally need to provide evidence to show that complying with the staging deadline would be "disproportionately burdensome", or would put the personal data of members at risk.

The guidance confirmed that these are the only reasons that an application to defer connection can be made, clarifying that a change in administrator alone would not be considered sufficient reason to defer a staging deadline.

The guidance also confirmed that permission to defer a staging deadline can only be granted once, with any applications to be made by 11 December 2023, and at least two months before the relevant staging deadline.

However, the guidance also suggested that "it would be advisable to make an application as soon as possible".

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