Guaranteed Income Products (Annuities) Comparison tool user interface and data provision

Description

The FCA requires pension providers to prompt customers seeking information on purchasing an annuity to shop around using the Guaranteed Income Products (Annuities) Comparison tool from the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS). The Guaranteed Income Products (Annuities) Comparison Tool is a key part of the 'at retirement' journey for MaPS customers. It is a web-based tool that allows customers to understand what their pension pot might buy them in terms of a guaranteed income over time. It receives over 120k visits a year. The tool is the only impartial, industry supported comparator, providing a 'whole of market' solution. The Guaranteed Income Products (Annuities) Comparison Tool has been available to customers to use since December 2014. The purpose of the tool is to allow non-advised customers who are interested in purchasing a guaranteed income (an annuity) to shop around at the point of deciding how to use their pension pot to produce an income in retirement. The tool shows products that are available on the open market and direct to consumers so that users of the tool know that what is shown is available to them. The current tool provides quotations for both Guaranteed Lifetime Income Products (Lifetime Annuities) and Guaranteed Fixed Term Income Products (Fixed Term Annuities). It allows users to select from all of the annuity options currently available and input medical and lifestyle information so that they can compare the cost of an annuity across the whole of the open market. The existing tool was developed and hosted by an external supplier on our consumer facing website, MoneyHelper. The current supplier maintains all aspects of the tool, including both the front end displays and functionality as well as the data feed of annuity providers. The current contract for this service expires in October 2022. MaPS wishes to ascertain interest from the market prior to any potential tender process for the provision of this service. The MaPS is inviting providers who would be interested in bidding for this opportunity to please indicate this by replying to the contact email address by midday on 6th May 2022. In addition to expressing interest in the opportunity, please also consider the information below and indicate if the 30th September deadline for build and deployment of the tool would be feasible. 1. MaPS do not own the intellectual property for the current tool that is hosted on the MoneyHelper website 2. The replacement solution, incorporating all the activities (I-III) below, must be in place by end September 2022 i. Develop a front end for the tool that has been fully integrated into the MoneyHelper website, fully tested and accepted by the internal QA team in line with our design standards and system constraints. ii. Obtain and validate accurate capture of relevant data from all data providers. iii. Develop the interfaces and required data flows to populate the data in the front end. 3. We cannot have a gap in service Additional information: Overview of Requirements: - The tool needs to be built, hosted, and maintained by the supplier. - It must enable consumers to compare annuity solutions from qualifying providers on the open market on a non-advised basis from the whole of the UK market. - The tool needs to be able to allow users to obtain results for Guaranteed Lifetime Income Products (Lifetime Annuities) and Guaranteed Fixed Term Income Products (Fixed Term Annuities). - The tool needs to allow the user to select from and be able to display a selection of parameters including single/joint life, escalation, payment frequency, guaranteed period and value protection. - The tool also needs to be able to allow the user to input medical and lifestyle information which is factored into the provision of the results. - The supplier will need to set up and maintain the necessary data feeds with annuity providers. The supplier will need to test and demonstrate they can provide the annuity figures for an extensive range of customer scenarios with each provider to prove accuracy and alignment. - The supplier will need to provide a develop a front end for the tool that has been fully integrated into the MoneyHelper website, fully tested and accepted by the internal QA team in line with our design standards and system constraints. - The tool also needs to be: o Accessible via desktop, tablet and mobile, o Built in line with MaPS specification and style guide, include pages in English and Welsh, o Built using progressive enhancement to ensure it works for the widest possible audience o Tested with assistive technologies to WCAG 2.1 AA and Government standards; o Designed and tested for different browsers and devices according to Government Service Standards; o Secure and protects users privacy o Fully tagged at analytics monitoring in Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics Reporting; o A Reliable service - minimise downtime and have a plan in place to deal with it and maximise up time. - MaPS require that the supplier have experience and a proven track record of collecting and maintaining comprehensive product information in the UK pensions market including accurate and up-to-date data on charges, product features and availability of annuity solutions through its established relationships with product providers. Statutory Data Requirements: - Accurate and up-to-date data on charges and availability of each of the annuity products and options; - Whole of market provision of this data for annuity products available in the UK which are available on a non-advised basis; - Product information including supplier name & basic product features.

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