Sixteen out of 20 pensions dashboards volunteer participants (VPs) are still to complete their connection journey, the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has confirmed, with a number of VPs waiting for a slot to become available so they can move forward with their testing.

The PDP's latest progress update report revealed that while all 20 of the VPs have begun their connection journeys, only four have completed the process.

Of the remainder, five have recently completed integration testing and are in the final stages, while many others are close to entering this stage.

The report confirmed that a few participants are also ready and waiting to begin integration testing as soon as a slot is available.

The Money and Pensions Service (Maps) has previously stated that regulatory action would not be taken against pension schemes that cannot meet their pensions dashboards connection date because they are using a third party that has not completed its connection journey.

Echoing this, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Pensions Regulator (TPR) said they "understand the position" and have provided reassurance that they will take a "pragmatic" approach.

However, this week, the Work and Pensions Committee (WPC) wrote to the Pensions Minister, Torsten Bell, to highlight concerns about the number of providers and schemes that have applied to defer connection beyond the October 2026 deadline.

Despite the delays, PDP said it was confident all pension providers and schemes in scope would be able to connect by the regulatory deadline of 31 October 2026, suggesting that, as it stands, the remaining cohort of participants could realistically complete their connection journeys in summer 2025.

In addition to this, the report confirmed that the PDP was working closely with potential dashboard providers, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and the regulators on a pathway for developing and implementing private sector dashboards.

It revealed that an internal workshop had been held with delivery partners (DWP, PDP, FCA), and in February, the PDP held two industry roundtables with potential private sector dashboard providers.

The findings from these sessions helped to inform two pre-discovery sessions in March.

Following these sessions, PDP said it was consolidating feedback and insights and would soon consider sharing findings and arranging future engagements.

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

Looking ahead, PDP said that now that the first pension providers and schemes are connected to the live dashboards ecosystem, Maps would undertake consumer testing with real individuals using the service to see real data about their pensions.

In the summer of 2025, Maps will begin a programme of end-to-end consumer testing in two phases.

The first phase (from summer 2025) is moderated testing, in which users will be invited to participate via workplace staff pension schemes and research panels.

The second phase (from autumn 2025) will involve inviting members to participate via providers, schemes and other sources.

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