The Pension Dashboard aims to allow people to see all of their pension savings and entitlements in an online place of their choosing, as currently pension pots can only be viewed separately.

The government estimates that people will have eleven jobs during their careers which is likely to mean eleven different pension pots, therefore it can be hard to keep track of all the different pots and to work out how much money has been saved.

The prototype project is managed by the ABI on behalf of Treasury and has co-ordinated the efforts of around 80 people from 17 pension firms and six technology companies, with input from government, regulators and independent industry experts.

The Pension Dashboard has received funding from the 17 pension firms.

The prototype works in four steps:

1. first, an individual will have to confirm their identify using a process like gov.uk/verify which is already offering secure online access to information such as details on state pension and tax returns;
2. a box will then need to be clicked to officially give the dashboard permission to share your information with multiple pension schemes and providers, or a third party connection they might be using;
3. queries are sent to all the different pension schemes and providers to look for the pensions pots which match your details, including the State Pension; and then
4. the system reports back on all the pensions it has found to a single page, showing the names of the schemes and their estimated value at a particular retirement age. There will also be an estimated value at the top for your combined monthly or annual income in retirement. In most cases, this will only take a matter of seconds.

The dashboard will also provide information on each pension pot about savings and will provide contact details for that scheme.

According to the ABI: ‘the pensions dashboard system does not involve creating a large store of pensions data. The technology fetches and delivers back the relevant information when an enquiry is made via the system.

‘Not all pension providers will have to connect directly to the dashboard system. They may also choose to connect via another service which will handle their data on their behalf.’

Over the next two years the prototype will be further developed to ensure that the right protections are in place to prevent fraud, keep data safe and to ensure people are confident enough to use it.

Yvonne Braun, ABI director of long-term savings and protection policy, said: ‘It sounds obvious that in 2017 everyone should have easy online access to all their pension information in one single place of their choice – yet the practicalities of making that happen are very complex. The prototype demonstrates once and for all that the technological hurdles can be overcome.

‘Giving people access to clear information about all their pensions has the potential to revolutionise how they think about saving for their retirement. Now we must ensure industry, government and regulators continue this close collaboration so the excellent work done so far can be developed into a valuable service the public can use by the government’s target of 2019.’

The prototype will be shown to the public on 12 and 13 April as part of the Treasury’s TechSprint event. Developers and pension experts from over 20 leading technology firms will compete over 24 hours to develop and show-off examples of the potential applications the prototype dashboard system can unlock for consumers.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Kirby, said: ‘Harnessing the power of technology to give people easier access to their information will help them be more informed when planning their retirement – one of the most important financial decisions in a person’s life.

I look forward to unveiling the prototype to the public for the first time at Britain’s FinTech week on 12th April.’