The government has relaunched a new Pensions Commission on 21 July 2025, headed by Baroness Jeannie Drake, Sir Ian Cheshire, and Professor Nick Pearce.  The Pensions Commission is set to examine the barriers preventing adequate retirement savings and resulting in poor retirement outcomes by assessing the overall pension system, while building on the findings of the Pensions Investment Review published in May 2025 and the measures outlined in the Pension Schemes Bill that aim to boost investment and stimulate economic growth. The initiative also builds on the success of the original Pensions Commission (2002–2006), which led to the introduction of Auto-Enrolment and improved pension saving participation from 55% in 2012 to 88% in 2025.

A campaign group and registered charity designed to raise standards in pensions administration. It issues a statement of standards of service that pension schemes should provide to members. Formerly known as Raising Standards in Pensions Administration (RSPA).

Law360: Higher retirement savings contributions and tougher rules on pension freedoms are probably on the cards, a former pensions minister commented on 19 May 2026, after the Pensions Commission interim report found that 15 million people are not saving enough for later life.

The Second Pensions Commission (the Commission) has published its interim report, 'Pensions 2050: Evidence and Future Priorities', warning that Britain faces significant existing and emerging pensions challenges that will require further reform. The report sets out the evidence underpinning the Commission’s review and identifies the principal adequacy, fairness and sustainability challenges facing the UK pensions system. While the Commission says the pensions system is in a stronger position than it was 20 years ago, largely due to automatic enrolment and the introduction of the new State Pension, it warns that many people are still not saving enough for retirement. Although the report does not make final policy recommendations, it outlines the key issues that will shape the Commission’s final conclusions, due in spring 2027. The Commission has also launched a further evidence-gathering phase, inviting submissions from industry participants, employers, trade unions, academics, consumer groups and other stakeholders until 14 July 2026.

A means-tested benefit that boosts a pensioner’s state pension to ensure they have a minimum level of income.

The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has commenced low volume testing of the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard using real pensions data. Up to 300 users will participate — about 50 in moderated tests and the rest in unmoderated sessions. Participants will mainly be non-pension specialists from connected pension providers, schemes, and research panels. Initially, users will only see State Pensions and simple DC and DB pensions. Other pension types may be found but not yet shown, with display capabilities for these added in later releases. The current phase of testing is set to last several months and focus on usability, data matching and identity verification. It follows earlier rounds of usability and industry expert testing, which helped refine the dashboard’s functionality and user experience.

The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has published an updated version of data standards as the industry prepares for connection to the dashboards ecosystem. These standards cover the data requirements for finding and viewing pensions information, and are mandatory for pension providers and schemes to connect to the ecosystem. The standards have been published to coincide with the connection timeline in guidance published by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Pensions analysis: The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP), on behalf of the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), has published draft Reporting Standards version 2.1 (Draft Reporting Standards) and launched a consultation on proposals to move from ad-hoc, on-request reporting to routine daily reporting of dashboards operational data via application programming interfaces (APIs). The proposals do not change what data occupational pension schemes and pension providers must generate and retain but would change how most of that data is submitted to MaPS. Once the Draft Reporting Standards are approved, they become legally binding. The consultation is open for industry feedback until 25 March 2026 with mandatory implementation proposed by 30 November 2026.

The Pensions Dashboard Programme (PDP) has issued a press release to mark the ‘major milestone’ that there is now one year until the final connection deadline of 31 October 2026, by which all pension schemes and providers in scope must be connected to the pensions dashboard’s ecosystem. With one year to go, the focus now shifts from building infrastructure to ensuring every organisation meets its obligations on time. Since the first connection in April 2025, over 700 schemes and providers have joined, covering around 60 million pension records, including the State Pension. Testing of the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard is progressing well, with early user trials underway—clear evidence that dashboards are becoming a reality the PDP concludes.

The Pensions Data Project has released its final report from the Private Beta phase, revealing that over 2m small pension pots across five major UK master trusts could be consolidated if all five were designated as default consolidators under current government proposals. Coordinated by the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) and analysed by PwC, the report highlights gender and age disparities in pension savings and points to the risks associated with fragmented and individual pots. The report further notes that its findings align with ongoing parliamentary scrutiny of the government’s Pension Schemes Bill, which proposes consolidating small defined contribution (DC) pots through multiple default consolidators.

A report ‘Lessons learned from matching pension provider membership data’ has been launched on 12 February 2025 by the Pensions Data Project providing the initial findings on the potential for matching savers’ data in future initiatives such as pensions dashboards and small pot aggregation. The latest report involved amalgamating data across five master trusts to understand error rates in data matching and to gain insights into levels of matching. The findings from the latest report from the Pensions Data Project, which is being led by five master trusts and coordinated by the Pensions Policy Institute, include the fact that there is a high proportion of exact matches (around 85%) on National Insurance (NI) number, surname, and date of birth - though many partial matches require further verification. Less than 600,000 records matched only on NI number, suggesting its potential as a unique identifier. Approximately 40% of scheme memberships match with another provider, indicating potential for consolidation. There's also a significant chance that new members are already registered with another provider. A more detailed report focusing on understanding the small pots situation, including the value and build up or down of these pots, alongside pensions wealth across five master trusts, is set to be published later in 2025. A further future stage aims to establish a comprehensive database, expanding participation to include other parts of the industry, and data from other types of pension schemes. Insights gained from these reports are set to inform policy initiatives and thereby improve the efficiency of the UK pension market.

The Pensions Industry Stakeholder Forum was established to help HMRC better manage its relationship with stakeholders and representative bodies. It has no connection with stakeholder pensions. The forum focuses on operational (rather than policy) issues and is the main route of engagement between HMRC and representative bodies.