Pensions Minister Laura Trott has provided an update on the reset of the Pension Panel Program (PDP) with amended regulations to include a communication deadline of 31 October 2026.
In a written statement, Trott confirmed that rather than setting out the full timetable in legislation, the government would set it out in guidance that it would work with industry on “this year”.
In addition to this, Trott clarified that the October 31, 2026 connection deadline is not the panels’ attainable point (DAP), suggesting that the DAP “could be earlier.”
In his statement, Trott explained that he was amending the regulations with a “new delivery approach” aimed at allowing the government and the PDP to work more closely with the pensions industry.
“Pension panels will change the way people plan for retirement.
“On 2 March 2023, I announced that the PDP would need additional time to ensure that pension providers and schemes are connected in accordance with the connection deadlines set out in the Pensions Panels Regulations 2022 and the Financial Conduct Authority’s relevant pensions panel rules.
“More time is needed to deliver this complex architecture and the pensions industry will help facilitate the successful integration of a wide range of disparate IT systems into the dashboard’s digital architecture.
“Given that the requirement to join the digital architecture should remain mandatory, we will include a deadline for joining in the legislation of 31 October 2026.
“This is not the point where the panels are available, the point where the panels will be available to the public, which may be earlier.
“The Government remains committed to making pension panels a reality and we are ambitious in delivering them. I am confident that this re-evaluated approach will enable us to make significant progress in the safe and secure delivery of panels, enabling consumers to enjoy the benefits. about their benefits to plan for retirement.”
However, PDP technology partner Equisoft described the announcement as “very disappointing”, noting that the proposed timelines for mandatory adoption “have actually been pushed back by two and a half years”.
Howard Finnegan, director of product sales at Equisoft, said: “We believe that most schemes without coercion and no incentive for early adoption will not follow the guidance dates.
“Why do companies incur costs a year or more before the regulator is required? This attitude was confirmed by last week’s webinar, when more than three-quarters of our survey participants at the event said they would join the PDP eco. six months or less before the system regulatory deadline.
“With the extension of the mandatory PDP connection deadline, we expect most schemes to suspend their projects, address more pressing challenges and restart them within 12 months of the regulatory deadline.
“This was confirmed in our latest survey where 100 percent of respondents said they have other more important projects that already conflict with their PDP project.
“This will not only mean that all the experience and expertise built up over the past year or so will be wasted, as schemes and administrators now have higher priority change projects, including regulatory initiatives such as Consumer Duty, but to stop or stop the change program and then reboot. it will add significant cost to the overall project a year or so later.
“We believe this approach will create a bottleneck in implementation and enrollment capacity in the six months leading up to the regulatory deadline, as tens of thousands of schemes will want to access the ISP, register and connect to the PDP ecosystem during that period. “
However, Jonathan Hawkins, Bravura’s general counsel, argues that while there is concern that the legislation will automatically diverge from the guidance, “ultimately it will be up to the industry to lead by example and regulators to provide the appropriate carrot and stick. ensure compliance with updated deadlines.”
“Now that we have a backstop date (October 2026), the PDP must prioritize re-establishing links with the Central Digital Architecture (CDA), which will allow pension providers and companies to progress their onboarding journeys,” he continued.
“We look forward to continued collaboration with PDP and our industry partners, as well as further updates on the expected reset later this year. Further delays in joining the CDA are likely to leave pension providers and schemes with enough to deliver, so it is important that this gets back on track soon.”
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