The National Audit Office has warned that a rise in supplier costs and the delivery timetable being extended by two years have increased the government’s Pensions Dashboards programme’s estimated cost by 23%.

The UK’s spending watchdog said capacity and capability issues, including a lack of digital skills and ineffective governance, have led to the delays.

After an investigation into the programme it said the estimated cost had increased by 23%, from £235m in 2020 to £289m by 2023.

Meanwhile, the estimated gross benefits fell from £437m in 2022 to £413m in 2023. The report criticised the Money and Pensions Service (MAPS) for being unable to deliver the "major digital programme."

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “Once completed, the Pensions Dashboards programme could benefit millions of people by providing a secure, comprehensive and online point of access for information about their pensions.

“However, delivery delays due to shortfalls in digital capacity and capability have pushed back the final deadline for pension providers and schemes to connect to the PDP by a year, with no date currently set for citizens to benefit.”

He said the Department for Work and Pensions and the Money and Pensions Service “must continue to work closely to ensure the final stages of the PDP are delivered smoothly and the public can begin to have access to this important service.”

The NAO’s report said that in 2019, the DWP delegated responsibility for delivering the PDP to one of its arm’s-length bodies, the Money and Pensions Service (MAPS). However, it did not have assurance at the outset that MAPS – which was formed in October 2018 – had the capacity and capability to deliver a major digital programme such as the PDP.

The report said between 2020 and mid-2022, DWP and MAPS made progress in delivering important elements of the pensions dashboards system. However, in December 2022, MAPS informed DWP that the PDP’s delivery timetable was no longer viable.

A subsequent review carried out by DWP in February 2023 found that multiple factors had contributed to the delivery problems, including a lack of skilled digital resources and ineffective programme governance. These factors had also been raised in earlier reviews of the programme carried out by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

An estimated 16.3m people will be able to use Pensions Dashboards, the NAO said.

Pension providers and schemes are currently required to connect to government digital architecture that supports dashboards by 31 October 2026 – one year later than originally planned. Pensions Dashboards were first confirmed in the 2016 Budget.