Pensions dashboards are on the "home straight" towards public availability, as work begins to explore the future development of commercial dashboards, Money and Pensions Service (Maps) proposition manager, Rebecca Fearnley, has said.

Speaking at The Investing and Saving Alliance (TISA) Annual Conference 2026, Fearnley said: "Pensions dashboards have been a long time coming, but I think I can say I feel like we're in the home straight, or at the very least on the final bend.

"We've got a working dashboard, we've got 85 per cent of records connected to it, and we are now well into a programme of testing it with consumers using their real data."

Fearnley also revealed that discussions are underway across the industry about the future development of commercial pensions dashboards, although no timeline has yet been set for their introduction.

Responding to a question on commercial dashboards, she said: "There has been work, mostly by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). I believe there's a consultation underway with industry to understand what they would like, and I think we're in the process of setting up some working groups to look into that.

"Again, there's no timescale for that, and that's a decision that's outside of our hands, but there is work going on behind the scenes."

Meanwhile, providing an update on the MoneyHelper pensions dashboard, Fearnley confirmed that the programme is currently in the second phase of consumer testing, following an initial three-month testing period involving 39 users.

The first phase found that most users were able to complete the dashboard journey without support, including the GOV.UK One Login identity verification process.

According to Fearnley, users highly valued being able to view their pensions in one place, with satisfaction levels remaining high and most participants saying they would recommend the service to friends and family.

Users also responded positively to the inclusion of state pension information, with some participants surprised to find it available alongside their private pension information.

However, the testing also identified several challenges, including difficulty navigating the One Login service, uncertainty about next steps when pensions required further action, and confusion about pension data more than 12 months old.

The second phase of testing has focused on increasing user volumes and assessing how consumers interact with the dashboard independently on their own devices.

The first tranche of phase two testing involved 300 invitations, while the second tranche increased this to 900.

Early findings showed that almost all visits returned at least one confirmed pension, while around a third of users saw pensions requiring further action or potential matches that needed to be resolved.

Despite this, satisfaction levels remained high, with 83 per cent of participants saying they would recommend the dashboard.

Addressing concerns over the proportion of pensions requiring further action, Fearnley suggested that the figure could fall as data quality improves across the pensions ecosystem.

"I think we could potentially anticipate that number coming down as the data gets better," she claimed.

"But I think there will always be an element of providers not being able to be 100 per cent certain that you are who you say you are."

Fearnley also acknowledged industry concerns over the potential volume of member queries generated by dashboards, particularly for administrators and providers.

While stressing that current testing volumes remain small, she said the programme is working closely with industry to understand the types of queries being generated and to share feedback with providers.

Now, the programme has moved into a third testing tranche, with around 1,800 invitations issued during May.

A number of dashboard improvements have already been introduced in response to user feedback, including changes to the 'pensions that need action' page, additional customer support channels, and enhanced guidance to help users understand their next steps.

Fearnley reiterated that the current expectation remains for the MoneyHelper pensions dashboard to be made available to the public during the 2027/28 financial year, although the final launch decision will rest with the Secretary of State.

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