“I know this commitment is shared across the pensions industry,” she said. “The huge consumer benefits of pensions dashboards are yet to be realised, but it is vital that the foundation upon which the dashboards ecosystem is built is safe, secure, and works for both the pensions industry users connecting to it and the end users of the service.
“While there are issues to work through, we must not lose sight of these benefits. It is essential that scheme preparation for pensions dashboards continues, and we will press ahead to deliver this technology.”
Dashboards delay must be kept to a minimum
Trott did not announce a date for the dashboards launch, and some industry members have doubts about whether the project can be delivered before the next election or even at all.
The statement saw some industry members take to Twitter to discuss the delay.
Darren Cooke, chartered financial planner at Red Circle Financial Planning wrote: “Shocked, it will get binned. Lot of time and money wasted on something that was a great idea but practically useless from the start.”
Ivor Harper, director at Park Financial wrote: “Our only hope is that the official 'binning' comes sooner rather than later.”
Meanwhile, LCP partner and former pensions minister Steve Webb said this latest delay in the roll out of pensions dashboards to the public is “deeply frustrating”.
“The end goal of a website where people can see all of their pensions in one place would be of huge value to pension savers,” he said.
“It will help people to find pension pots they have lost track of, and will enable them to rationalise and make best use of the pots that they do have.
“The government must ensure that any delay is kept to an absolute minimum. The lack of a firm new timetable will leave industry in limbo and this uncertainty must be resolved as soon as possible.”
Rachel Vahey, AJ Bell head of policy development, said the previous timetable setting has been scrapped, and the public and industry now are "left rudderless with no idea of the current state of play".
She said: “The DWP has torn up the plans for pensions dashboards and has decided to start again.
"After years of work across the industry and multiple government bodies, this a staggering development and means dashboards are now at risk of being mothballed until the next Parliament, and may never become a reality at all.
“For the industry this is frustrating, with countless hours of careful work put into developing dashboards. More importantly, this a huge let down for consumers."
