£54m jump in costs behind pensions dashboards programme

The costs behind a system to help people to see all their pensions together online have jumped by £54 million, with no date yet set for when it will be made available to the public, a spending watchdog has said.

Delays to the pensions dashboards programme have partly been due to a lack of digital skills and ineffective governance, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

The estimated cost of the programme has jumped by 23%, from £235 million in 2020 to £289 million in 2023.

The report said a “range of factors” has led to the estimated cost of the programme increasing by £54 million.

“These include an increase in supplier costs, changes to the Money and Pensions Service’s (MaPS)