Tackling 'dirty data' is crucial for pensions dashboard to succeed 17 May 2017
Research has revealed a majority of providers are missing invaluable customer information necessary for the pensions dashboard to succeed.
Professional Pensions reports that in the first study of its kind that looks at the quality of data in such detail, ITM examined information from over 440 pension providers and schemes with more than 20 million members. The firm, which is one of six technology partners for the Treasury's Pensions Dashboard Prototype project, investigated whether the quality of existing pensions data could be used as a basis for matching data to an individual in the final working dashboards.
The findings demonstrate the challenge the industry faces in getting the data up to a standard, which can be used for the multiple dashboards that are expected to be developed through the coming years.
Pension products set up before 2000, which account for over three fifths of the total number of member pots featured in the survey, were found to have the highest average levels of inaccurate or missing customer data.
ITM chairman Duncan Howarth said:
"It's no surprise in some ways that pension products before the millennium have the poorest quality data, given that many of these survey respondents will have inherited a portion of their data from previous providers where data was maintained on different systems and even in some cases, hand-written documents.
These high levels of inaccurate data reveal that the industry is a long way from achieving the high data standards needed for fully functioning pensions dashboards. Connecting the sheer volume of data out there is a crucial."
Accuracy and availability of national insurance (NI) numbers, date of birth, postcodes and initials/surname were all flagged up by ITM as essential for live pensions dashboards to function effectively.
Postcode data was identified as a particular issue for occupational schemes, with 60% inaccurate or missing among defined benefit (DB) schemes from before 2000 with a value of between £100,000-£200,000.
Over 30% of postcode data was also flawed in all other DB and defined contribution occupational schemes surveyed, regardless of the pension pot value.
Howarth added: "We've been calling for all pension providers participating in the live pensions dashboards to establish an industry data standard and our research findings support the need for this level of continuity. Indeed, it's our belief that pension providers must achieve a minimum data quality standard before they can sign-up to the live dashboards. If the data standard is too low, the quality of the output in a ‘live' environment will be highly unreliable."
Back to Contents
Progress on future of British Steel Pension Scheme 18 May 2017
Tata Steel has reached an outline agreement over the restructuring of its pension scheme.
BBC News has reported that Tata Steel UK has offered to pay £550m into its now-closed pension scheme and give the fund a 33% stake in its UK business.
The former British Steel scheme was shut at the end of March as part of Tata's plan to avoid going bust. Tata said the injection of new cash and assets had been drawn up after talks with the UK pension authorities and the scheme's trustees.
The proposed deal, which involves the UK's pensions regulator and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), aims to absolve Tata Steel of any further responsibility for the final-salary scheme
In a statement from The Pensions Regulator, Chief Executive Lesley Titcomb said:
“Good progress is being made in our discussions with Tata Steel UK (TSUK) and the trustees about the future of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS). The key commercial terms of a regulated apportionment arrangement (RAA)
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Policy News Journal
cipp.org.uk
Page 131 of 145
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker