It won’t be from Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan, but if you’re the Chair of Trustees then you can expect an email from The Pensions Regulator, informing you of the date you are required to connect your scheme to pensions dashboards (your ‘staging date’).

While these communications are currently being sent to schemes approximately 12 months in advance of staging deadlines, there is much to do before connecting, so trustees need to be aware of their date before they receive their email.  

Identifying your date 

The expectation is that, by now, trustees know their staging date. But there have been some changes since the draft regulations were consulted on, and some nuances which might be missed, so here is our guide to making sure you’re fully aware of your staging date: 

Start by working out the number of ‘relevant members’ your scheme has. A ‘relevant member’ is defined as a deferred, active or pension credit member – so there’s no need to include pensioners. And if your scheme has fewer than 100 relevant members, it will not be required to connect to dashboards. There’s an important point to note - the number needs to be as at the scheme year end falling between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.   

1. Start by working out the number of ‘relevant members’ your scheme has. A ‘relevant member’ is defined as a deferred, active or pension credit member – so there’s no need to include pensioners. And if your scheme has fewer than 100 relevant members, it will not be required to connect to dashboards. There’s an important point to note - the number needs to be as at the scheme year end falling between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.
2. Are some of your members in a defined contribution (DC) section? If you have a section providing money purchase benefits under the same trust as a defined benefit (DB) one, then you should count all relevant members together. This is significant if you have a reasonably small DB section – you may think that the staging date for those members will be a while away, when in fact the requirement to count them with your money purchase members may mean the DB section has to stage earlier than if it were considered separately. If they are not under the same trust, then they will have different staging dates (and you may want to consider staging them both at the earlier date).   
3. Is your DC scheme used for auto enrolment? If it is, it will be earlier in the staging order. However, if you have both a DB and DC section, and the DC section is used for auto enrolment, the auto enrolment point falls away – it will be classed as a hybrid scheme in the regulations, with the total number of both DB and DC relevant members then determining the date.  
4. Look at the regulations. Schedule 2 has a detailed timetable listing each cohort and the date it is due to stage. 

 Some examples 

So while schemes are broadly being staged by size, there are various conditions to consider. It’s worth revisiting the staging schedule in the regulations and checking that your staging date is unchanged since your original assessment. Then you can avoid any surprises in your inbox! 

More in this series:

Dashboards - are you dashing ahead or seeking to delay boarding?

Dashboard Lasagne: Pension Dashboard preparation is key or it’s a recipe for disaster!