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Blog The launch of pensions dashboards will be a milestone moment for the industry – but it’s also just the beginning. Once members start logging in, searching for benefits, and viewing their Estimated Retirement Incomes (ERIs), the real challenge begins: maintaining accurate, up-to-date data and giving members the clarity they need. Without the right systems in place, dashboards could create more questions than answers – and more pressure on pension scheme administrators than ever before.
Mantle’s Graeme Riddoch explores what happens after pensions dashboards launch and why the demand is more than focusing on patched-up legacy platforms.
Fast forward to the future
Fast-forward to the future: pensions dashboards are live, members are logging in, searching for their benefits, and viewing their Estimated Retirement Incomes (ERIs). Job done? Not quite.
Getting data into shape and coaxing ageing systems into producing the required calculations is only the start. Once dashboards go live, schemes need to keep the data maintained and generate fresh ERIs every year. Many legacy platforms can’t automate benefit calculations, meaning ERIs must be produced manually—often at considerable cost to the scheme.
But cost isn’t the big challenge: Picture this
A member logs in and sees an estimate of their retirement income online. For many deferred members, it may be the first time they’ve ever seen such a figure, since they don’t receive Annual Benefit Statements. Active members do get them, but whether they read or understood them is another question.
Now the dashboards add another complication. The ERI format is prescriptive—including how the benefit is calculated. That may not align with what members have previously seen, which risks confusion, queries, and calls to administrators.
And the questions won’t stop there.
- What happens if I take only part of my tax-free cash?
- What if I retire at 62, not my Normal Retirement Age?
For many members, dashboards will be the spark that drives them to seek out more answers. Without robust online self-service, all those enquiries will fall to administrators—many of whom are already stretched. Some large public sector schemes wrestling with McCloud remedy calculations show the scale of the challenge: in some cases, members have been left waiting months not just for a quote, but for their cash lump sum and regular pension to be put into payment.
So what’s the solution?
It isn’t patching over legacy systems again. It’s biting the bullet and replacing them with modern, capable technology. Mantle calculates 100% of benefits automatically – including ERIs. With true member self-service, schemes can deliver a vastly better experience for members, while dramatically reducing the burden on administrators.
Pension Schemes can replace complexity with clarity: every calculation automated, every member empowered, every administrator freed from repetitive tasks. The day after dashboards go live, will you be ready?
For further information on how Mantle can you support your pension dashboards processes, email us at enquiries@mantleservices.com, visit our website, download our collateral or watch the video below.
