The UK Pensions Dashboards Programme is approaching the statutory connection deadline of 31 October 2026. The infrastructure is intended, in time, to help people identify pension savings held with more than one provider.

The Pensions Regulator tells administrators to treat connection as a compliance duty, not only as an IT project. Schemes must choose a digital interface, work with suppliers and prepare the data needed to identify members.

A technical connection does not guarantee accurate results. Incomplete, inaccurate or incompatible records can prevent a pension from being found. Data cleansing, a data-protection impact assessment and supplier governance are part of the preparation.

Scheme connection and public availability of the service are separate stages. The Pensions Regulator notes that, before 31 October 2026, some requirements may remain unresolved in testing; that does not mean the service is already open to everyone.

Savers should not assume that every function becomes accessible as soon as a scheme joins the architecture. A public launch date is not the same as the connection deadline.

For administrators, the coming period means documenting decisions, monitoring suppliers and fixing data or security problems.

Image: Shixart1985, laptop and card, 21 August 2021, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. A finance illustration, not the pensions dashboard. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Connecting to pensions dashboards — The Pensions Regulator.