Secretary of state for work and pensions Esther McVey may end the government’s involvement in the pensions dashboard project, according to reports.
She believes the project should be provided by the private sector and is seeking to ditch state efforts when the parliamentary summer recess begins, The Times reported.
According to the newspaper’s sources, McVey is also worried the project will distract from universal credit, one of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) other flagship policies.
The DWP took over development of the dashboard from the Treasury last year, with pensions and financial inclusion minister Guy Opperman stating at the time: “Make no mistake, the dashboard will happen.”
Both the government and the industry have been working on the project for over two years since former chancellor George Osborne announced it in the 2016 Budget, with a prototype being pulled together by the industry last year. Last month, Origo said it had trialled a dashboard for 15 million users.
A feasibility study probing key questions relating to the dashboard – such as whether compulsion is needed and if there should be one or multiple dashboards – was due to be published by the DWP in March, but this has been continually delayed. The latest update is it will be out “in due course”.
A DWP spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied McVey’s views, but said the report was “speculation”.
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Association of British Insurers director general Huw Evans said losing government support could expose savers to scams.
“It is vital the government stands by its promises on the dashboard,” he said. “To abandon it would be a huge let down to millions of savers, leaving them unable to find the money they have saved and even exposing them to fraud.
“This is an initiative with cross-party support, backed by consumer groups, which is a win-win for everyone. The pensions industry is committed to helping but we need government involvement to ensure the system works fairly for everyone.”
While the dashboard’s development could continue without government support, there is concern this could lead to an unregulated market with varying levels of data and access across the online tools.
Pensions Administration Standards Association chair Margaret Snowdon said, while the industry is committed, gaining the trust of consumers would become more difficult without government backing.
“The government is not essential to the project but would help ensure public confidence in the early stages,” she said. “The industry could deliver a national dashboard very soon – it will build it anyway even without government fronting it.
“The issue will be independent governance. I believe government is committed to the dashboard but perhaps the minister has a few residual concerns. There seems to be political turmoil around at the moment and anything that could need funding centrally is under question.”
In a separate report at the weekend, The Sunday Times noted McVey was on “resignation ‘suicide watch'” over the government’s Brexit position following the publication of its white paper last week.