National Financial Planner and retirement specialist LEBC has urged all parts of the pensions sector to back the Pensions Dashboard to help beat pensions scams and improve consumer engagement.

The dashboard, an online location where pension savers can view all their pension investments, is due to be launched by the Department for Work and Pensions in 2019.

Speaking to industry professionals at The Pension Network recently, LEBC director of public policy and Chartered Financial Planner Kay Ingram outlined LEBC’s vision for a dashboard which could improve consumer engagement with their pensions and also help defeat criminals targeting pensions savings. It may also help cut costs too in the long run, she said.

Professional Bodies

LEBC sees the Dashboard as having the potential to be the portal through which all pension information is exchanged and to which access could be restricted to the consumer, their nominated regulated adviser and the single guidance body.

She said: “By requiring a PIN to be inputted before information is released and restricting the distribution of PINs to regulated individuals and the guidance service, consumers can have the confidence that only those with legitimate intent could access their data.”

She acknowledged that the initial inputting of scheme information would incur a cost to trustees of pension schemes and providers of private pensions but believes that this cost will be recouped over time by providers and trustees saving ongoing administration costs on dealing with enquiries about pensions on a piecemeal basis.

In addition, LEBC believes that the innovation - supported by the ABI and many pensions providers - could help to further cut the cost of advice to consumers.

She added: “We estimate that the average cost saving per pension scheme could be around £400 in advice costs. Currently a lot of time is spent in obtaining accurate information from schemes about an individual’s pensions. By streamlining the process, we can pass those costs savings on to consumers, making advice more affordable to more people.

“Currently too few consumers have access to good quality advice at retirement and do not make the most of their pension pots by failing to shop around. Our mission is to extend the availability of advice so that more can enjoy a comfortable retirement.”