Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey said the pensions dashboard – a hub allowing savers to view all their pension savings in one place – will help people make sense of their pensions and plan ahead for the future.

The announcement comes a couple of months after reports suggested McVey had moved to ‘kill off the project’ and an online petition attracted more than 100,000 signatures urging the government not to scrap the plan. Initially, the government confirmed full backing for the project towards the back end of 2017.

McVey said: “The pensions landscape is transforming and the dashboard offers a great opportunity to give people straightforward access to their pension information in a clear and simple format – bringing together an individual’s savings in a single place online.

“It’s clear there is broad support for the concept of a dashboard and its potential to empower those putting money away for their futures.

“By taking a leading role, and harnessing their knowledge, industry can develop a dashboard that works for pensions holders – and government will help facilitate this.”

‘Huge breakthrough after period of uncertainty’

Steve Webb, director of plicy at Royal London, said: “There is much that the industry can do to deliver a dashboard, but only the government can supply vitally important state pension data and only the government can legislate to make sure the dashboard’s coverage is comprehensive. Backed by this renewed commitment by the government, the whole pension industry now needs to work together to drive forward this much-needed initiative”.

Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon said: “For the time being we remain cautiously optimistic that government support continues and await the publication of the feasibility study which is key to the industry being able to move forward with developing the dashboard initiative.”