More than half of workplace pension holders (52%) are currently feeling overwhelmed by managing multiple pension pots and that could lead to an explosion of users of pensions dashboards when launched.

More than 16 million people plan to use dashboards from next year, according to new research by platform engine and fintech Bravura Solutions. 

The company said the figure emphasises the importance of firms having scalable dashboard solutions that can cope with surges in demand.

The study found that workplace pension holders aged between 25 and 34 are struggling the most, with two-thirds (64%) feeling overwhelmed. Only a third (33%) of those aged 55 and faced similar challenges.

Bravura surveyed 2,000 workplace pensions holders to uncover the current state of member engagement and understand how consumers plan on interacting with dashboards as the industry approaches the first connect deadline in April 2025.

Eight in ten (82%) – or more than 16 million people – plan to use dashboards when launched. Of those, more than three quarters (76%) think they will have a positive impact when planning for their retirement and six in ten (60%) expect to find a lost or forgotten pension.

In addition to finding and viewing their pensions information (50%), respondents are also interested in using dashboards to monitor pension contributions (45%), estimate their total balance at retirement age and to stay updated on the performance of their pension investments (42%).

Longer term, if pensions dashboards were able to provide services to help better manage their retirement money, almost two in five respondents (36%) said they would like to see insight tools (calculators, estimators and analysers). More than three in ten (31%) said they would be interested in consolidating pensions via dashboards.

Jonathan Hawkins, Bravura’s propositions lead EMEA, said: “Dashboards are just around the corner and they couldn’t come at a better time for the public. Aside from helping pension savers who are struggling to manage multiple pension pots, pensions dashboards could open up a world of possibilities for pension providers to increase the level of targeted support and personalisation for different demographics.”

He said the potential popularity of dashboards “means that all eyes will be on the industry when dashboards are open to the public. While dashboards are federated by design and should handle surges in demand from potentially millions of calls for data.”

He warned that any dashboard user action beyond passive monitoring risks incapacitating providers with large volumes of requests that require manual intervention – such as correction of errors, calculations, transfers, consolidation, or even simple requests for extra information.

Mr Hawkins said: “If providers are to turn dashboards into an opportunity to grow and better support their savers, many will need to invest in their underlying technology infrastructure to finally do away with the inefficient and messy patchwork of systems that have built up over decades.”

• The survey polled 2,037 UK respondents with a workplace pension. The survey was undertaken by Censuswide and data was gathered in March.