Industry experts have expressed concerns about the future of private sector dashboards, highlighting specific issues around regulatory restrictions and launch timelines.

Speaking at a Work and Pensions Committee (WPC) meeting, Pension Administration Standards Association (PASA) chair, Kim Gubler emphasised the uncertainty surrounding the introduction of private sector dashboards.

“We have the commitment from the Pensions Dashboard Programme (PDP) and Department for Work and Pensions saying private sector dashboards will happen, but we need to have more certainty,” she said.

Moneybox head of personal finance, Brian Byrnes, also expressed scepticism on whether private sector dashboards would be launched anytime soon.

“We don’t have a launch date for the MoneyHelper dashboard so I’m sceptical whether we are going to get a subsequent launch date for private sector dashboards and if we might do, it might be some stage quite far into the future. If I’m being optimistic 2029/2030,” he stated.

“If we get that … the government, the regulator and all the various bodies involved would lose lots of the opportunity for collaboration because people just wouldn’t be able to dedicate the resource.”

Pensions Dashboard Operators Coalition volunteer independent chair, Richard Smith, also expressed doubt about the feasibility of FCA-regulated dashboards, referencing a LinkedIn poll in which 40 per cent of industry respondents believed they might never materialise.

“I don’t think, even though your constituents desperately need it, that we are going to see any FCA regulated dashboards,” Smith said.

However, speaking during a later WPC panel session, PDP senior responsible owner, Iain Patterson, provided insight into the development of private sector dashboards, confirming that the programme is currently running the private sector dashboard pre-discovery, and moving into the discovery phase.

“We are doing that with the people that have vested interest in it and the regulators, so we can understand more about what it is they want to do, the reasons behind it and how that will actually work for them," Patterson explained.

“That’s very early days. It’s only been running since the beginning of the year.”

He also noted that launching public and private sector dashboards simultaneously could cause confusion among users.

“It’s best to go forward with one, take the lessons from that, and run the proper discovery on what private sector dashboards would look like and what that would mean. Then we can better articulate what this would look like in practice and how it would work,” he added.

This was echoed by Byrnes, who said that, ultimately, the priority is getting a dashboard launched – whether this is a private or public sector dashboard.

“By prioritising the MoneyHelper dashboard, we will get that launched sooner than if we tried to do both and the private sector dashboard at the same time,” he said.

“We have 12.5 million people in the UK undersaving for retirement before housing costs in retirement are factored in. We have £31bn in lost pension pots across 3.3m lost pensions - that I think is a bit of an understatement,” he said.

“We need to be doing the work around the private sector dashboards at the same time as we are trying to launch the MoneyHelper dashboard.”

In response to these concerns raised at the WPC meeting, PDP principal, Chris Curry, added: “Government has committed to private sector dashboards and we are working with industry to understand the path to delivery.

"Prioritising the MoneyHelper pensions dashboard will enable us to learn from testing and public use.

"This will provide space for the Money and Pensions Service (Maps) and potential private sector dashboards to refine their service to offer the safest and most effective experience for users."

Broader concerns were also raised around industry preparations, however, as Gubler pointed out that many medium and smaller-sized schemes have not yet fully digitised their data, with PASA research showing that only 40 per cent of schemes have done so.

Gubler warned this could be a barrier for public sector and private sector dashboards alike.

Byrnes also pointed out the regulatory complexities for private sector dashboards noting that multiple oversight bodies, including Maps and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), add layers of difficulty.

He also pointed out that, whilst there is reason behind this, the way in which the FCA will regulate private sector dashboards is "incredibly restrictive and onerous".

"It will not be that seamless or that smooth” as logging into a preferred app and seeing it displayed, he explained, as savers will instead have to be a separate environment, where savers will view only their pensions information.

“What you can do in that separate environment is incredibly restrictive. There are no transactions whatsoever, no consolidation for example. You cannot top up your pensions,” Byrnes said.

The issue of adequacy was also addressed in the session, with Smith suggesting that one of the primary goals of dashboards is to help users understand their total estimated retirement income, allowing them to make informed decisions.

However, he said that on public sector dashboards, “about half of the working age savers are going to see a number that they don’t think is adequate", pointing out that “MoneyHelper cannot help you with a click through to do something about [adequacy]".

“I worry that if we have an extended period of MoneyHelper we are just creating more fear by showing people estimated retirement incomes that aren’t enough to live on and not giving them help to do something about it,” Smith said.

However, Maps chief executive officer, Oliver Morley, addressed concerns over adequacy in a later WPC session, stating: “We’re building a support model based on our PensionWise capability.

“Our expectation is that we will be able to deal with, at scale, some of the queries from pension dashboards, particularly around adequacy and more widely technology communication.

“We expect to make sure we can provide onward journeys and certainly adequacy will be part of that discussion.”

The panel referred to commercial dashboards as private sector dashboards throughout the meeting, after raising concerns that the word commercial is not the most accurate description.

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