Heywood
Have you ever found £20 in your wallet or in a jacket pocket that you had forgotten about? It’s genuinely thrilling. Now imagine that, but instead of £20, it’s a lost pension worth thousands of pounds. This is exactly the kind of moment pensions dashboards aim to create, helping people reconnect with pensions they may have lost track of over the years.
But there’s a catch. When dashboards go live, members will expect instant access to their pension records. If the pension schemes' Find Data isn’t accurate, those pensions may not appear at all, or worse, they may match incorrectly. Right now, public awareness of pensions dashboards is low, but that will change rapidly. When members start logging in and errors appear, schemes will be in the spotlight.
The reality of data inaccuracy for pensions dashboards
Heywood’s Pension Pulse report on data accuracy reveals concerning statistics about data quality across schemes. It found:
- 8.79% of surnames are incorrect – often due to marriage or divorce
- 9.44% of addresses are wrong – leading to lost communications and frustrated members
- Over 1 in 50 pensionable-age members are deceased but still listed as active
But critically, one of the reports main finding's is that once you factor in the average inaccuracy of three common Find Data fields - such as name, address and National Insurance number - as many as 1 in 5 members may be presented with a "possible" match, rather than a confirmed match.
For many members, this could lead to stress and confusion. For schemes, it could result in a flood of enquiries, compliance risks and the knock on impact of increased admin costs - a particularly unwanted result for already stretched resources. The consequences of inaccurate data isn't just limited to inconvenience. Longer term it could result in delayed benefit payments, misallocated funds and loss of trust in the pensions system.
Data being exposed by pension dashboards
Pensions dashboards will bring a new level of transparency to pension schemes, providing members with real-time access to their savings. But this transparency works both ways: it will also highlight inconsistencies, outdated records and inaccuracies that might previously have gone unnoticed.
Schemes that assume they have time to fix data issues post-launch are taking a significant risk. The Pensions Regulator has been clear that it expects schemes to be prepared. If members cannot find their pensions or encounter errors, they will turn to schemes for answers, creating a surge in administration demand and reputational pressure.
Chris Connelly, Chief Strategy Officer at Heywood, explains in the Pension Pulse report:
"A lot of the consequences of poor data are hidden at the moment, but when dashboards come along, that data is going to be exposed in real-time. Schemes need to act now to avoid member frustration and unnecessary admin burdens."
Fixing member data accuracy problems before it’s too late
We’ve been banging this drum for a while now. But as connection dates get nearer so does the announcement of the Dashboards Availability Point (DAP), and when we understand the DAP timeline, we’ll know when the members will start to show up.
Addressing data issues should not be a last-minute task. Schemes must take proactive steps now to ensure a seamless transition when dashboards go live. The process of cleansing and validating data is complex, requiring ongoing management rather than a one-off exercise.
Three steps to take to assess your pension scheme member data
The launch of pensions dashboards marks a fundamental shift in how members engage with their pensions. With increased visibility comes greater scrutiny and schemes that take data accuracy seriously will be in the strongest position to provide a positive member experience.
Here's what schemes should be doing:
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Conduct a full data audit – Identify and correct inaccuracies in key fields such as names, addresses, dates of birth, and National Insurance numbers
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Validate Find and Value Data – Ensure the information used for member matching and pension valuations is up to date and aligned with regulatory expectations
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Implement an ongoing data cleansing strategy – Make data maintenance a continuous process rather than a one-off project to keep records accurate over time
Those that delay risk being overwhelmed by errors, administrative bottlenecks and reputational damage. Ensuring data readiness now is the only way to avoid these pitfalls.
Ask yourself this: how confident are you that your data is as accurate and up to date as it could be? If you have recently completed a thorough data assessment and enrichment programme, you should find yourself in a healthy position. But if you haven’t, it should be on your list of priorities.
Ensuring data readiness now will prevent errors, reduce administrative burden and improve member confidence when dashboards go live.
