Pensions Data Project report offers insights on members’ data matching for pensions dashboards and small pots consolidation
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.