Nederlands
The start dates of your occupational pension and your Dutch state pension (AOW) are set to diverge increasingly after 2021.
The age at which you receive your AOW is set to rise in the years ahead, reaching 67 in 2021. After that the rise will depend on the trend in life expectancy. Life expectancy is rising faster than expected. You have no doubt read about all this in the media. The rise in life expectancy also leads to a rise in the retirement age. For the Astellas Pension Fund this will be 68 from 1 January 2018.
Change in pension regulations from 1 January 2018
The pension regulations will be amended from 1 January 2018, with the target retirement age being raised from 67 to 68. This is the age which the Astellas Pension Fund will use from 2018 to calculate the maximum tax-allowable pension you can accrue. The term used in the pension regulations is ‘target retirement age’.
What does this mean for you?
You will not necessarily start receiving your AOW and occupational pension at the same time. That has been the case since 2013 and will undoubtedly remain so in the years ahead. That means you will probably not know what your target retirement date is until shortly before you retire. By then you will already have accrued a large proportion of the maximum tax-allowable pension. The options available within the Astellas Pension Fund scheme enable you to align the start date of your occupational pension with the start date of your AOW. You can also opt, for example, to take a part-time pension or vary the amount of your pension payment (higher at first and then lower, or vice versa).
What will happen in the future?
We expect both the AOW retirement age and the occupational pension retirement age to rise further in the future. The social debate on this matter has not started yet. It is very likely to be a theme of the electoral programmes of various political parties. That will not result in any change in the decision, however, because the AOW retirement age and the target retirement age are calculated on the basis of existing laws.