A new tool from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) could help workers save an extra £9,000 on average for their retirement.
The Pensions Dashboard, currently under development, will ensure people can always track down their pension pots. Many people can lose track of them over time, especially as they change jobs, often meaning hard-earned contributions go to waste.
Around 3.3 million of these pots have been lost in the UK, with an average value of £9,470, a report from the Pension Policy Institute found in 2024.
Researchers add that for those aged 55 to 75, this rises to £13,620 per pension. And as trends show more people are moving between jobs in their careers, the problem is expected to get worse as more pension pots are started.
This is where the Pensions Dashboard will come in. This tool will give people a platform to view all their pensions in one place. It’s planned to include personal pensions, workplace pensions and the state pension by the time it is fully rolled out.
The new tool will enable people to see all of these pots in one place, giving them a better overall idea of how much they’ve currently got saved for retirement.
It will also ensure no pensions are missing by making it a requirement for all pension providers to register with the service. This will ensure that the onus is on providers to ensure savers can see the pots they have with them, rather than the current system where people must seek out their lost pots.
Under a timetable laid out by the DWP, all pension schemes must be registered with the service by 31 October 2026. This was decided by the previous Conservative government, with Labour pensions minister Emma Reynolds confirming the deadline would be maintained.
However, speaking in October, the minister said it was “too early to confirm a launch date for public use” of the Pensions Dashboard, calling its development a “challenging and complex undertaking”.
When the system is live, there will be two versions of the dashboard in use. The first will be operated by the government’s MoneyHelper service. It will enable users to see all their pension pots in one place, without many additional functions.
This will be available first, and then be followed by dashboards launched by private companies. These will have the same central purpose of bringing pension pots to a central location, but also offer additional tools on top. This could include things like consolidating pensions or investment advice.
In the meantime, there are still ways to find lost pension pots, with the government launching the Pension Tracing Service in 2016 to make the process easier.
