A petition urging the government not to scrap its support for the pensions dashboard has attracted more than 82,000 signatures in less than a week.
The petition, which launched six days ago, is addressed to secretary of state for work and pensions Esther McVey and has called on the government not to “scrap” the pensions dashboard.
Four days ago the petition had 14,000 signatures, but over the weekend it gathered momentum, bringing the total to 82,776 signatures at the time of writing.
The petition came after McVey was reported to be preparing to “kill off” the government’s involvement in the project during parliament’s summer recess.
Speaking in an evidence session in parliament with the Work and Pensions Committee last Wednesday, pensions and financial inclusion minister Guy Opperman did little to dismiss the rumours of a doomed dashboard.
Instead he told the committee that “no decision has been made” on the future of the dashboard and “it’s probably not appropriate for me to comment any further than that”.
One signatory to the petition, Elizabeth, remarked: “Government at last has a sensible idea – then ditches it!”
The Department for Work and Pensions is still set to publish a feasibility study on the project, which will assess whether compulsion is needed, if there should be multiple dashboards, and who should host the online tool.
The study had been due to be published in March but has been delayed, with Opperman now saying it would be published “fairly soon”.