Earlier this month, Pi held a breakfast seminar that discussed the progress made on the Pensions Dashboard Programme, and whether this is ready to be released to members. Many thanks to Maurice Titley and Geraldine Brasett for such an insightful and well-informed update.
As chair of the seminar, Tracy Weller shares a few of the key insights she took away from the session…
“As a Trustee, I am not sure whether I felt reassured or frightened by the update, however one of the clearest messages I took away from the seminar was that trustees need to take action sooner rather than later.
Between March and June, more than 11,000 pension matches were recorded for almost 3,000 users. It was useful to hear that not everyone who receives a secure link goes on to complete the dashboard journey. This reinforced for me that schemes need to monitor the whole user experience, not just the connection volumes.
The discussion around matching demonstrated how important it is to find the right balance between tight matching criteria and one that is much looser. I found it reassuring to hear that matching is expected to improve as the service develops. Additional data, such as previous surnames, should support better outcomes, and higher volumes should help schemes identify where members are failing to find pensions and establish meaningful benchmarks for matching rates.
Both Maurice and Geraldine really brought to life the impact on administration operations. Not only the additional processes required to support the dashboard and matching records but also the increase in volume of member queries, transfer and retirement quotes and requests that are likely to occur.
It is clear the additional demand remains unknown. Trustees and their administrators will need to agree how best to prepare for and manage this demand, as well as have a Plan B in place if demand assumptions are exceeded.
The seminar also provided me a practical guide to the next steps I should be considering as a Trustee:
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Amanda is a Board Director of Pi Partnership Group and leads the development of Pi’s services. She works closely with clients, the Pi team and professional advisers to ensure all of Pi’s services meet the changing needs of the pension market and deliver clear value to Pi’s clients.
Amanda has over twenty-five years’ experience in the pensions industry and, as well as ensuring Pi’s services continue to meet the needs of our clients in a rapidly changing pension landscape, is also a member of Pi’s Executive Management Team. She provides specialist project management for clients on a range of services, including adviser selection and review, trustee board assessment and governance design.
As well as being a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) and Chair of the PMI London Group, Amanda holds PMI certificates in Pensions Automatic Enrolment and DC Governance, was a past Prince2 practitioner and is a Certified Risk Management Practitioner.
What do you most enjoy about your role: Successfully delivering complex projects and creating a happy team environment.
Interests outside work: Travel, theatre and as part of Abundance London helping create beautiful spaces in urban settings.
Top achievement to date: Competing in the 2005/06 Round the World Clipper race.
