Sample001

The sample dashboard below (Sample001) shows a simple list of my pensions, assuming they can all be digitally found. Click or tap each pension to expand it for details.

Notice five things about this dashboard: 1) the click-through links, 2) pension income amounts label, rounding and periodicity, 3) multiple tranches within a pension, 4) multiple pensions in the same scheme, and finally 5) the order in which the pensions are displayed.

These are all discussed below the dashboard.


Simple list in alpha order

Sample001

Pension name: Aon Master Trust
Administrator name: Aegon
Website link to find out more: theaonmastertrust.co.uk

Date the pension income below was last updated: 13 Aug 2021

Pension income: £3,750 a year
Payable from: 8 Aug 2041

Pension type: Defined Contribution (DC)
BLANK
Pension name: Aviva
Administrator name: Aviva
Website link to find out more: aviva.co.uk

Date the pension income below was last updated: 8 Jul 2021

Pension income: £12,500 a year
Payable from: 8 Aug 2041

Pension type: Defined Contribution (DC)
BLANK
Pension name: Centrica Pension Plan
Administrator name: Mercer
Website link to find out more: centricapensions.com

Date the pension income below was last updated: 28 Aug 2021

Pension income: £2,160 a year
Payable from: 31 Aug 2032

Pension type: Defined Benefit (DB)
BLANK
Pension name: Nest
Administrator name: Nest
Website link to find out more: nestpensions.org.uk

Date the pension income below was last updated: 31 Mar 2021

Pension income: £19,100 a year
Payable from: 8 Aug 2041

Pension type: Defined Contribution (DC)
BLANK
Pension name: Pension Protection Fund
Administrator name: Pension Protection Fund
Website link to find out more: ppf.co.uk

Date the pension income below was last updated: ? ??? ????

Pension income 1: £140 a year
Payable from: 8 Aug 2027

Pension income 2: £1,500 a year
Payable from: 8 Aug 2032

Pension type: Defined Benefit (DB)
BLANK
Pension name: Prudential Staff Pension Scheme
Administrator name: XPS Administration
Website link to find out more: prudentialstaffps.co.uk (Deferred member)

Date the pension income below was last updated: 7 Jul 1995

Pension income: £1,130 a year
Payable from: 8 Aug 2027

Pension type: Defined Benefit (DB)
BLANK
Pension name: Prudential Staff Pension Scheme
Administrator name: XPS Administration
Website link to find out more: prudentialstaffps.co.uk (Deferred member)

Date the pension income below was last updated: 31 Dec 1998

Pension income: £1,020 a year
Payable from: 8 Aug 2027

Pension type: Defined Benefit (DB)
BLANK
Pension name: Scottish Widows
Administrator name: Scottish Widows
Website link to find out more: personal.secure.scottishwidows.co.uk/login

Date the pension income below was last updated: 8 Mar 2021

Pension income: £120 a year
Payable from: 8 Aug 2032

Pension type: Defined Contribution (DC)
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Pension name: State Pension
Administrator name: Department for Work and Pensions
Website link to find out more: gov.uk/check-state-pension

Date the pension income below was last updated: 13 Aug 2021

Pension income: £9,490 a year
Payable from: 8 Aug 2034

Pension type: Defined Benefit (DB)
BLANK


Discussion topics

1) Click-through links

Each pension has a link to take the user to the scheme / provider website – we know from existing research users want this useful facility.

However, where exactly should this link to? I’ve set up the links above to go to the log in page of the relevant scheme / provider website. (Even after I’ve logged into my chosen dashboard, I’ll still have to maintain separate log in IDs and passwords for each different website – arrrgh!)

But is the log in page the most logical place to link to? Would a “How can we help?” / FAQ landing page be a better place to link to? This should be thoroughly beta tested with users.


2) Label, rounding and periodicity of pension income amounts

Every pension shows a pension income amount which I’ve obtained from my latest statement or from the scheme / provider website.

Label: First of all, I’ve deliberately avoided describing these as “pension values”. The “value” of a defined benefit (DB) pension can be very large, and could confuse users. So throughout, I consistently use the label “Pension income amount” as that’s what these numbers are.

(I’ll discuss defined contribution (DC) pension pot values, and cash lump sum values, under later Sample dashboards.)

Rounding: Throughout, I’ve consistently rounded the amounts down to the lower £10. I find amounts shown to the penny unnecessarily accurate, but this should be tested with users.

Periodicity: The amounts shown are not at all consistent across my different pensions – I’ll have a lot more to say about this under later Sample dashboards.

For now, though, notice the periodicity of each amount. Each pension income shown is consistently an annual amount, i.e. “£x a year”.

We know from the 2018 simpler statement research, and the 2019 Dutch research, that users relate better to monthly incomes, partly because they know roughly how much they spend today in a typical month.

So maybe users would prefer to see 1/12th of the annual amounts I’ve shown? Or, maybe there could be an option: “Would you like to see monthly or annual amounts?” Or maybe they could both be shown? All of these options should be thoroughly tested with users.

The user testing of DWP’s Check your State Pension (CySP) online service found that users want to see both the monthly and annual amounts, but it leads with a weekly amount (see screenshot below). It might be a bit much, though, to show three figures for all nine of my pensions – that would be 27 numbers!

Note too that CySP shows the State Pension weekly amount in whole £s, but the monthly and annual amounts to the penny, despite my State Pension not being payable for 13 years:


3) Multiple tranches within a pension

Look at my Pension Protection Fund pension. (Strictly speaking this is compensation and not a pension, but from a dashboard user’s perspective it will pay a regular income in retirement so it’s very like a pension.) Anyway, notice there are two income amounts (£140 a year payable from 2027 when I am age 60, and £1,500 a year payable from 2032 when I am 65).

It is very common for defined benefit (DB) pensions to comprise multiple “tranches” like this, very often payable from different dates.

Even though these are payable from different dates, I’ve shown them together under a single Pension Protection Fund heading. Will users find this a logical way for this to be displayed? This should be thoroughly tested.

Another example of a similar situation to this is where a member has paid additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) to a DB scheme. Here there would be the “main scheme pension” and the “AVC pension” both relating to the same scheme, even though the information will likely be returned by different data providers. This whole area requires extensive user testing.


4) Multiple pensions in the same scheme

Look at my two pensions from the Prudential Staff Pension Scheme (PSPS).

I left and rejoined Prudential: my first period of employment was from 1991 to 1995, my second was from 1996 to 1998.

Because of this, I have two separate deferred DB pensions in the PSPS. This is a very common situation: people often leave and rejoin employers and / or schemes, sometimes years later.

I have displayed these as two separate pensions (because that’s what they are). But will users find this display confusing given the pensions are in the scheme? This is a different display approach to my multiple tranches within the Pension Protection Fund.

This needs to be thoroughly tested.


5) Display order

The pensions in the Sample001 dashboard above are displayed in alphabetical order of the pension scheme / provider name.

Is this most intuitive order for the pensions to be displayed in?

Maybe dashboard users would prefer to see their pensions sequenced in the order they were built up, i.e. in the time order of their working life. See Sample002 for an example of this.