All pension schemes must connect to the dashboard by October 31, 2026

The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed a major overhaul of Britain's pension system that could help millions of people recover thousands of pounds in forgotten retirement savings.

The Pension Dashboards project has reached a crucial turning point, with officials announcing that 85 per cent of pension records are now linked to the new digital platform.

This breakthrough means Britons may soon be able to track down lost pension pots worth an average of £9,500 each.

Estimates from National Pension Tracing Day suggest approximately 3.3 million forgotten pensions are sitting unclaimed across the country.

The combined value of these missing pensions totals more than £31.1billion, representing a substantial sum that workers have accumulated but subsequently lost track of over their careers.

Once the dashboard system goes live, users will have an extremely strong likelihood of viewing all their pension entitlements in a single location.

The platform will display both state and private pensions, showing which provider holds each pot along with contact details and current valuations.

The system will also project what income each pension could deliver at retirement age, giving savers a complete picture of their financial future.

The pension dashboard will function as a one-stop digital hub where individuals can access comprehensive details about every pension they hold.

MoneyHelper, the Money and Pensions Service, will initially provide the dashboard, though banks, employers and pension providers are expected to offer their own versions in future.

To use the service, people will need to complete a secure identity check, which may involve photographing their identification documents and themselves.

The system then uses personal details including name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number to search pension schemes across the country for matching records.

Rachel Vahey, head of public policy at AJ Bell, acknowledged the project's troubled history but expressed optimism about its current trajectory.

"The pace at which the Pension Dashboards project has moved forward has often felt glacial at best," she said.

"For long periods previous governments appeared to park the project altogether, filing it in the 'too difficult' pile and leaving it to someone else to deal with."

She added: "Delivering a project on this scale is not easy and it has been beset by endless delays and restarts. But it now seems to finally have some momentum."

Phase 2 testing is currently underway with 2,000 members of the public participating in trials of the new system.

All pension schemes must connect to the dashboard by 31 October 2026, with only very small schemes holding fewer than 100 members currently exempt from this requirement.

Ms Vahey indicated that a public launch date could be announced later this year, though she cautioned that the full rollout "probably won't be until mid-2027 at the earliest."

She noted: "There is now some light at the end of the tunnel."