DWP confirms timeline for dashboard connectivity

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has set out the deadlines for pension schemes and providers to connect to the pension dashboard ecosystem, beginning from next April.

The largest master trusts, annuity providers and personal pension providers have the earliest deadline of 30 April 2025, while small private sector schemes have staging deadlines stretching through 2026.

All relevant schemes must be connected to the dashboard ecosystem by 31 October 2026.

In a statement to parliament yesterday (25 March), pensions minister Paul Maynard said testing will be carried out this year with a view to connecting state pension data from August this year, before wider connection exercises begin in 2025.

“The government is absolutely committed to delivering pensions dashboards safely and securely to the public at the earliest opportunity,” Maynard said.

“The publication of the connection timetable marks a significant milestone towards launching pensions dashboards, and takes us closer to introducing a service that has the potential to transform how individuals plan for retirement.”

In its guidance, the DWP recognised that connecting to the dashboards ecosystem was “a significant undertaking which will require specialist technical expertise”. Those seeking to connect directly, rather than through a third-party provider, should engage with the PDP as soon as possible in order to meet their deadlines, the department said.

Anthony Rafferty, CEO of Origo, one of the technology companies building the architecture behind the dashboard system, said pension providers needed to be prepared to receive “millions of requests for pensions data” when the system was fully operational.

He also highlighted the need for robust data reconciliation processes to ensure any errors can be corrected.

“Once pensions are found, the scale challenge for industry is to also handle the volume of ‘view’ requests they receive,” Rafferty said. “We predict a pension provider with a million customers could receive 200,000 view request per day as people view their pension data more often.”

Schemes have been split into tranches or “cohorts”, with deadlines beginning from 30 April 2025. The largest schemes will be brought on board first, with smaller schemes having later deadlines.

The full schedule

30 April 2025 connection deadline:

• Defined contribution (DC) master trusts with 20,000 members or more
• Annuity providers, including bulk annuities, with 5,000 members or more
• Personal pension providers regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (5,000+ members)
• Stakeholder pension providers (5,000+ members)

31 May 2025:

• DC auto-enrolment schemes (5,000+ members)
• Other DC schemes (20,000+ members)
• Defined benefit (DB) master trusts (5,000 to 19,999 members)
• Private sector non-DC schemes (20,000+ members)
• Hybrid schemes (20,000+ members)

30 June 2025:

• DC master trusts (1,000 to 4,999 members)
• DC auto-enrolment schemes (1,000 to 4,999 members)
• Other DC schemes (5,000 to 19,999 members)
• Private sector non-DC schemes (5,000 to 19,999 members)
• Hybrid schemes (5,000 to 19,999 members)

31 August 2025:

• DC schemes (2,500 to 4,999 members)
• Private sector non-DC schemes (2,500 to 4,999 members)
• Hybrid schemes (2,500 to 4,999 members)

30 September 2025:

• Collective DC schemes of all sizes
• DC schemes (1,500 to 2,499 members)
• Private sector non-DC schemes (1,500 to 2,499 members)
• Hybrid schemes (1,500 to 2,499 members)

31 October 2025

• All public sector and parliamentary schemes, including the LGPS

30 November 2025

• Private sector non-DC schemes (1,000 to 1,499 members)
• Hybrid schemes (1,000 to 1,499 members)
• DC schemes (1,000 to 1,499 members)

31 January 2026

• Occupational pension schemes (750 to 999 members)
• Annuity providers, including bulk annuities (less than 5,000 members)
• Personal pension providers regulated by the FCA (less than 5,000 members)
• Stakeholder pension providers (less than 5,000 members)

All occupational pension schemes with fewer than 750 members have been split into cohorts by size, with different deadlines for each group.

• 28 February 2026: schemes with 600 to 749 members
• 31 March 2026: schemes with 400 to 599 members
• 30 April 2026: schemes with 320 to 399 members
• 31 May 2026: schemes with 250 to 319 members
• 30 June 2026: schemes with 195 to 249 members
• 31 July 2026: schemes with 155 to 194 members
• 31 August 2026: schemes with 125 to 154 members
• 30 September 2026: schemes with 100 to 124 members

Any schemes with fewer than 100 members that wish to be connected should refer to the PDP’s guidance, the department said.