Sample005

The sample dashboard below (Sample005) shows a simple table of my pensions, assuming they can all be digitally found.

At the top are pensions which have been recently updated (in the order of the date they were last updated), and below are pensions which are as at a historic date.


Table in last updated date order

Sample005

Pension
name		Date
started		Date last
updated		Date payable
from		Annual
amount
Pensions updated recently
Scottish Widows1 Sep 20208 Mar 20218 Aug 2032£120 a year
Nest1 Jul 201631 Mar 20218 Aug 2041£19,100 a year
Aviva1 Nov 20038 Jul 20218 Aug 2041£12,500 a year
State Pension8 Aug 198313 Aug 20218 Aug 2034£9,490 a year
Aon Master Trust1 Feb 200113 Aug 20218 Aug 2041£3,750 a year
Centrica Pension Plan1 Jan 199928 Aug 202131 Aug 2032£2,160 a year
Pension Protection Fund5 Oct 1987? ??? ????8 Aug 2027
8 Aug 2032		£140 a year
£1,500 a year
Pensions as at a historic date
Prudential Staff Pension Scheme1 Oct 19917 Jul 19958 Aug 2027£1,130 a year
Prudential Staff Pension Scheme9 Apr 199631 Dec 19988 Aug 2027£1,020 a year


Discussion topics

Sample005 is exactly the same table as Sample004 except the “out of date” pensions (which will generally be from earlier in the user’s working life) are at the bottom. Although maybe they should be at the top to highlight even more clearly that they are out of date?

Notice, though, that ordering the pensions by “Date last updated” has lost the intuitive “Date started” sequencing. Maybe all “recent” pensions (say those updated at any point in the last 12 months) should be displayed in order of “Date started”. This should be beta tested.


But when can I get the money?

The Sample004 table shows my pensions in the order they started to build up (my career order), but that mixed up out of date amounts with more current amounts. So the Sample005 table shows them ordered by the date they were last updated (split between recent and historic).

But this still doesn’t enable the user to simply add up all the amounts – all we’ve done is made the “out of date-ness” of the old pensions a little bit more obvious. (And maybe it should be made even more obvious? Maybe colour-coded? Something else to be beta tested.)

This is all quite confusing and, for a dashboard user, possibly not the most interesting thing about each pension. There’s a third date relating to each pension which, we know from international dashboards usage, will be of great interest to users, namely:

Date payable from, i.e. the date from which I can actually start getting each pension income paid to me.

Of course, the dates shown in the “Date payable from” column aren’t actually the earliest dates I can start receiving each pension.

For each pension in the table, the “Date payable from” shown will generally be the “Normal Retirement Date (NRD)” or “Normal Pension Date (NPD)” of a defined benefit (DB) pension arrangement. And for defined contribution (DC) arrangements, the date will likely be the individual’s “Selected Retirement Date (SRD)”, which often defaults to 65th birthday, or State Pension Date, if the individual doesn’t actively select a specific date.

But of course, these aren’t the earliest dates the pensions can be accessed. In the majority of cases, the earliest date is the individual’s 55th birthday (this is known as normal minimum pension age, or NMPA), increasing from April 2028 to their 57th birthday.

So, for each pension, we have a “Date payable from” (or maybe multiple dates if, for example, the pension is split into multiple tranches – see my Pension Protection Fund amounts as an example). But these aren’t actually the earliest possible “Dates payable from”.

But let’s put to one side for one moment the challenge of communicating to users this “earliest possible payment from age 55 (or 57)” complexity.

Perhaps users would find it helpful to see their pensions in the order in which they are “normally” payable? (i.e. in order of “Date payable from”). See Sample006 for an example of this.