The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has published new guidance to help schemes and administrators track how member behaviour changes following the introduction of pensions dashboards, including their impact on transfers, retirement activity, enquiries and potential scams.

The new Dashboards Toolkit: Post Use Behaviour, developed with input from The Pensions Regulator (TPR), is intended to help trustees, scheme managers, administrators and providers understand the wider operational and behavioural impact of dashboards once they become available to members.

It builds on PASA’s existing Compliance Monitoring Guidance, which focuses on the monitoring required under the dashboards regulations and how trustees can demonstrate that they are meeting their regulatory duties.

However, PASA stressed that, alongside regulatory compliance, the industry will need to understand whether dashboards change how members interact with their pensions and whether emerging trends require action from administrators, trustees or regulators.

The toolkit therefore sets out a series of suggested reporting measures, including changes in completed transfer payments and transfer quotations, completed retirement settlements and retirement quotations, transfers in, member enquiries, fraud cases and engagement from vulnerable members.

PASA warned that the measures are not intended to create a new mandatory reporting standard and encouraged administrators to use existing reporting wherever possible and to develop additional monitoring proportionately.

The guidance noted that an increase in completed transfer payments could indicate a change in member behaviour and, in some cases, greater scam risk, while higher transfer quotation volumes could suggest that dashboards are prompting members to engage with deferred or previously forgotten pensions.

For defined benefit (DB) schemes, PASA added that changes in transfer and retirement settlement volumes could also have funding and cashflow implications.

Schemes could also consider tracking whether transfer requests were initiated or responded to online, whether the member had previously been considered ‘lost’, the average transfer value and the average age of members requesting quotations.

PASA suggested similar monitoring for retirement activity, including whether members engaged with guidance, support or advice before settling their benefits, where this is known.

The toolkit also recommends monitoring changes in other transactions, such as investment fund switches, increases in contributions and updates to personal details, as well as changes in the volume and nature of member enquiries.

Where possible, administrators are encouraged to identify why members are making contact, including whether enquiries arose because they did not understand information displayed on a dashboard or related to a pension for which no dashboard record was returned.

Meanwhile, the guidance also highlights vulnerable members and potential fraud as areas for monitoring, noting concerns that dashboards could create new opportunities for pension scams even if the overall incidence remains low.

PASA argued that red-flag transfer cases could be reported separately to provide greater insight into whether members are being exposed to increased scam risk.

PASA chair, David Fairs, said dashboards would be a “major step forward” in helping members engage with their pensions, but stressed that connection and compliance were only part of the picture.

“Once dashboards are live, the industry will need to understand how members respond, what questions they ask, and whether any changes are needed by administrators, trustees or, at a scheme-wide level, regulators."

Fairs added that much of the required information may already be captured through existing governance reporting, but argued that a more consistent industry-wide approach would help build a clearer picture of dashboards’ impact over time.

PASA Dashboards Working Group chair, Maurice Titley, suggested that greater visibility of pensions could lead to more enquiries, transfer and retirement activity, member data updates and additional demand on administration teams.

He said identifying useful measures before dashboards become available would allow schemes and administrators to prepare for the operational impact and provide trustees with “clearer, more meaningful reporting”.

PASA Dashboards Working Group deputy chair, Geraldine Brassett, added that consistent reporting would be important in determining whether dashboards were meeting their objectives and identifying where members might require additional help.

TPR policy lead for pensions dashboards, Lucy Stone, welcomed the guidance, stating that monitoring what members do after using dashboards would help schemes assess whether changes were needed to their administration and member engagement strategies.

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