Moneyhub, the award-winning Open Data platform and alpha partner to the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP), has launched a new Pension Finder feature that can automatically identify gaps in retirement savings by analysing savers’ career histories on LinkedIn.
The UK government has calculated that people will have an average of 11 jobs in their career[1] – each of which now results in them being auto-enrolled into a pension scheme. Participation levels were at 47% in 2012 and soared to 79% in April 2021[2]. The rise in enrolment is also matched by an increase in old-age poverty which demonstrates the need for workers to take control of their pensions. One in five pensioners is now living in relative poverty in the UK[3], with the number of financially insecure pensioners increasing by 200,000 over the last year and soaring to more than two million.
The release of Pension Finder comes ahead of the launch of Moneyhub’s Pensions Dashboard, which is currently in alpha development and scheduled for early 2024, subject to FCA authorisation. Moneyhub felt an interim solution was required as savers still need and want to find their pensions.
Launched ahead of the Government’s Pensions Dashboards, which are expected to be introduced from 2024, Pension Finder is the world’s first extension of Open Finance using Open Data, allowing people to build a full picture of their pension and make crucial retirement plans by connecting the Moneyhub app with their LinkedIn profile.
Moneyhub’s Pension Finder is designed to help pension managers, workplace pension providers, trustees or advisors help their customers engage with their pensions, encourage them to save more cash for retirement and understand the long-term implications of their current financial situation and savings strategies.
Users can combine the pensions information found by analysing their career history with other information aggregated and calculated by Moneyhub in tools such as Moneyhub’s Lifestyle Modeller, which predicts people’s financial situation after a major event such as retirement to set lifestyle expectations.
Dan Scholey, Chief Commercial Officer of Moneyhub, said: “Too many people are failing to engage with their pensions meaning they are potentially missing out on a better retirement. In an era of inflation, it is important that savers take positive steps to guarantee their future financial wellness.
“When people have a complete financial picture they are able to make better decisions or get the help they need. The Pension Finder is an important addition to the capabilities of Moneyhub and will make financial admin easier and ultimately drive better outcomes for our clients and their customers.”
From April 2023, pension providers must make their data available to dashboards. It will revolutionise data providers’ customer service by enabling them to give savers the ability to securely search for all their pensions and see the wider context of all their financial assets including investments, savings, property, mortgages, and more.
In December 2021, PDP selected Moneyhub and two other potential commercial dashboard providers to work with the programme in an initial (alpha) six-month phase. In June 2022, Moneyhub’s dashboard became the first commercial dashboard to be successfully connected to the central architecture, in addition to the MoneyHelper non-commercial dashboard from the Money and Pensions Service.