Just one-in-20 (5 per cent) pension scheme trustees and in-house pension managers expect their pension scheme to be able to provide pensions value data for all members at launch, research from WTW has revealed.

The poll found that nearly half (46 per cent) expect value data to be available for up to 90 per cent of members, while a fifth (21 per cent) of schemes don’t yet know what level of member coverage they will be able to achieve.

This is despite over three quarters (76 per cent) of respondents stating that they are confident they will be compliant with their dashboard duties in time for their connection deadline.

The research also revealed some anxiety as to how pension schemes will cope with the increase in member enquiries anticipated once dashboards have launched.

Less than half (48 per cent) of those surveyed were confident that their scheme would be able to manage the increase in enquiries, while over a third (35 per cent) anticipate that their scheme will have difficulty coping with the higher volume.

Commenting on the findings, WTW outsourcing (pension solutions) director, Geraldine Brassett, emphasised the need for pension scheme trustees to take action now to understand and resolve data issues, urging them to work closely with their administrators and providers.

She stated: “Pension schemes know there is still a lot of work to do to prepare for the launch of dashboards, but there are steps they can take to minimise disruption and increase success for members.

“Understanding a scheme’s design and the quality of its data is key as most of the challenges and enquiries that schemes will face will be data related.

"Most schemes can expect an ‘80:20’ experience of implementation, where roughly 80 per cent of members will be straight-forward to onboard, but around 20 per cent are likely to be more complex.

"This may be due to legacy issues such as equalisation or underpins or be at a member level, including one-off benefit promises, late retirement terms or pension sharing orders.

“Understanding these different considerations at scheme, category, section, or member level is key to ensuring data is correctly configured for members and that they see the right information when they log in to a dashboard.

“We know that pensions data can be imperfect but the actions we take now to understand and resolve data issues will help to give members the confidence in dashboards. I would urge all pension schemes to work closely with their administrators and providers to help iron out their data challenges in advance of dashboards becoming available to members.”

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