The petition is addressed to the secretary of state for work and pensions, Esther McVey, and is titled; ‘Don’t scrap the pensions dashboard’.
Announced in the March 2016 budget, the dashboard is currently due to be rolled out by 2019.
Its future was cast into doubt, however, after reports surfaced that McVey was looking to “kill off” the idea.
Recent reports suggest that McVey believes the dashboard should be provided by the private sector.
The issue was compounded when pensions minister Guy Opperman, whose boss is McVey, was unable to comment on the future of the dashboard when questioned about it by the work and pensions select committee last week.
Petitions need at least 100,000 signatures to warrant a response in the House of Commons.
Keep your promises
Citing estimates from the Department for Work and Pensions, the petition states that 50 million pension pots will be lost by 2050 without an official website to help workers keep track of their savings through their careers.
“A huge petition signed by thousands of us will show the government we expect them to keep their promises and continue to roll out the pensions dashboard,” it says.
“The website has already been successfully tested and was due to be rolled out nationally, soon. It’s all the more urgent because new laws to boost pensions have led to nine million workers being automatically enrolled onto workplace schemes in recent years.”
There is no information on the website, 38degrees, about the people behind the petition.
Strong feeling
Some signatories expressed their frustration at the prospect of the dashboard being scrapped.
Barry B wrote: “Too many employers treat their pension schemes as a honey pot. Workers must have this dashboard to help them keep track of the deceit of some employers.”
Caroline M added: “This is important for my children and grandchildren’s generations. They do not have the job security I had, so pensions are harder to trace.”
Elizabeth B wrote: “Government at last has a sensible idea – then ditches it!”
