Pensions Dashboards will allow savers to view all their various pension pots in one place – including the government pension, workplace pensions and any private pensions. Currently savers have to look at these pots separately, which can make it difficult to keep track.

The government’s objective was originally for the service to be available by 2019, with the target date later moving to 2023.

The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP), a body established to advise government on the reforms, has published a timetable for pension schemes to connect to dashboards. It says that while the first wave of schemes would connect to dashboards in Spring 2023, this process could take two years under the Pensions Dashboard Programme plans.

There is still not yet a proposed start date for ‘onboarding’ the smallest pension schemes.

Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell, said: “Pensions Dashboards have the potential to make life a whole lot easier for millions of people who build multiple retirement pots over the course of their working lives.

“Being able to see all of your retirement pots in one place online could be a game changer. Most obviously it should save people the hassle of digging through old statements – if they have them at all – when they want to consolidate their old schemes.

“It should also make the scourge of lost pension pots a thing of the past, and over the longer-term could become a tool to boost retirement engagement and understanding. However, before that great pensions oak tree can emerge the government and the pensions industry needs to get an acorn in the ground.

“There is little doubt the government was wildly optimistic when it suggested Dashboards could be up-and-running in 2019. This is a huge project involving vast amounts of data and with people’s life savings at stake, so the most important thing is ensuring that data is safe and the information people eventually see on dashboards is reliable.

“While the pace of the outlined timetable is enough to make a snail blush and will frustrate many – not least government ministers – it is infinitely better than headlines of another IT disaster. That said, we hope the government and the FCA will hold the feet of the laggards to the fire to ensure dashboards become a reality as soon as possible.”