Employer
Your current employer has a Pension Agreement with SPF, which makes you a member of the SPF pension scheme.
Partner
We define a partner as:
- The person you are married to, or
- The person who is registered as your partner at the Civil Registry, or
- The person with whom you have a notarial cohabitation contract recognized by SPF.
If you marry or enter into a registered partnership, you do not need to report this to SPF if you live in the Netherlands. You do need to do this if you live abroad.
You must always report a cohabitation agreement executed before a civil-law notary to SPF regardless of where you live and you must register your partner with SPF. Children do not need to be reported.
Type of pension scheme
Your pension scheme is a benefit agreement in the form of an average salary scheme. In an average salary scheme, you accrue pension each year on the salary that counts towards your pension scheme (pensionable salary). This refers to your average pensionable salary in the years you are a member of the pension scheme. This means that you receive a pension based on the average pensionable salary.
Start date for membership of the pension scheme
This is the date on which you started accruing pension with SPF. This date may not be the same as the start date of your employment with your current employer.
Pension age
The pension age is the age at which you retire. If you retire earlier or later than this age, your annual pension will be lower or higher. See the example below.
Contribution percentage paid by your employer in 2023
SPF receives contributions from the employer and uses these to pay the pensions.
This contribution, taking into account your part-time percentage, is 25.5% of your pensionable salary. This pension contribution is normally set for a five-year period. After payment of the contribution, the employer has no further liability for any shortfall in the pension fund. If the employer's contribution turns out to be insufficient, SPF may reduce pension accrual in the future.
Your contribution in 2023
The employer deducts the pension contribution from the employee's salary. The amount of this contribution is shown on your payslip.
Your salary that counts for the pension scheme
The pension regulations rules determine what portions of the salary count towards the pension accrual, i.e. are pension-earning. This is called the 'pensionable salary'. The pensionable salary in the pension scheme is subject to a statutory maximum of €137,800 (2024 level). Do you work part-time? Do or did you work part-time? For part-time workers, the pensionable salary is expressed on a full-time basis.
No pension accrual
The contribution-free amount of €17,545 (2024 amount) is the portion of your pensionable salary over which you do not accrue pension. The reason you do not accrue any pension on this portion of the salary is because, as from your State Pension Age (AOW age), you receive a state pension. Do or did you work part-time? Even in that case, this contribution-free amount is still the basis for the calculation of your pension accrual.
Salary over which you accrue pension
This portion of the salary is also referred to as the 'pensionable earnings' – the pensionable salary minus the contribution-free amount. Your pension accrual is based on the pension base.
Annual pension accrual percentage
The accrual percentage is the percentage of the pension base that you accrue in pension each year. For the retirement pension, the accrual percentage is 1.875%.
Employment percentage
Your employment percentage is the percentage that you work (or worked) as a percentage of full-time employment. Here is an example: a full-time employment contract amounts to 40 working hours per week. If a person works half days (20 hours per week), their part-time percentage is 50%. In that case, the pension accrual will be corrected by the part-time percentage.
Statutory benefit
If you live or work in the Netherlands, you may be insured for your state pension (AOW). Everyone who has reached the State Pension Age (AOW age) and lives or has lived in the Netherlands is entitled to this pension. The state pension is a basic pension provided by the government. The Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) pays out the AOW benefit. For more information, please see svb.nl/AOW.
SPF Benefit
How much pension have you accrued?
Alongside the state pension, you accrue additional pension with SPF (retirement pension). You annually accrue pension at SPF as long as you remain employed by your current employer and you have not reached the State Pension Age (AOW age). The UPS sets out the amount of annual pension that you have accrued as of January 1, 2024. If your employment ended on January 1, 2024, this is the pension benefit you would be able to expect to receive upon reaching pension age.
What can you expect to accrue?
The expected pension is the amount that you will receive if you continue to work until the State Pension Age (AOW age) and you continue to accrue pension, without any changes, in the current pension scheme and all other information applicable on January 1, 2024. Reaching the State Pension Age (AOW age) is also the point at which the employment contract ends in accordance with the CLA and the pension accrual stops. The current maximum State Pension Age (AOW age) is 67 years and three months. The UPS shows the pension age (68 years) laid down in the regulations. If your actual pension age is higher or lower than the statutory pension age, then the ultimate pension benefit will be recalculated on that basis, and so may be higher or lower. You can calculate the impact of such changes on your pension payment using the Pension planner. If, for example, you increase or reduce your working hours in the future, or start receiving a higher or lower pensionable salary, this will change the amount of pension you accrue.
Example
Your State Pension Age (AOW age) is 67 and you actually retire at the age of 67. In that case, the expected retirement pension as presented in the UPS is recalculated. After all, you will retire one year earlier than the statutory pension age (68 years). The retirement pension will therefore be lower because SPF will pay it out one year earlier and therefore for longer.
Conversely, if you retire later than the statutory pension age, the retirement pension will be higher because SPF will then pay out the pension for a shorter period of time.
What will your partner and children receive in the event of your death?
Statutory benefit
Upon your death, your partner and any children you may have could be entitled to a statutory benefit. This statutory benefit is called the ANW, or the pension under the General Dependants’ Act (Algemene Nabestaanden Wet). Your partner must apply to the Dutch Social Insurance Bank (Sociale Verzekeringsbank, SVB) for this benefit. The Social Insurance Bank is the governmental agency that oversees the administration of the ANW. For more information, please see svb.nl/anw.
SPF Benefit
If you die, your partner is entitled to a partner’s pension for life and a temporary partner’s pension. The partner’s pension is paid to your partner as from the moment of your death. The temporary partner’s pension is also paid to your partner from the moment of your death. In that case, your partner receives this amount until he or she reaches State Pension Age (AOW age).
SPF also insures a supplemental partner’s pension. The amount of this pension is based on the gross ANW benefit for a surviving partner without children. Upon your death, this amount (maximum € 19.081 as of January 1, 2024) will be paid to your partner but only until he or she reaches the State Pension Age (AOW age).
The amounts given on the Uniform Pension Statement take into account the partner’s pension, temporary partner’s pension, and supplemental partner’s pension if you are entitled to these.
Upon your death, your children are eligible for an orphan’s pension until they reach the age of 18 (or as long as they are enrolled in a higher education program, up to the age of 27). This amount is also listed on the Uniform Pension Statement.
What if you become disabled?
Statutory benefit
If you have been out from work for longer than two years (statutory requirement 104 weeks) and declared more than 35% occupationally disabled, you may be eligible for a disability payment. You receive this benefit from the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen, UWV) on the government's behalf pursuant to the WIA (Work and Income [Capacity for Work] Act). The amount of this WIA benefit depends on your percentage of disability and your income prior to becoming disabled. For more information, please see uwv.nl.
SPF Benefit
If your employment contract is terminated, you are additionally insured with SPF for disability. The disability pension is a supplement to the WIA benefit. This is the disability pension that you receive if you are fully disabled (80%-100%) and your pensionable salary is above €71,628 (2024 amount). You also continue to (partially) accrue pension as long as you have a disability level of 35% or above.
What will your UPS say if you are divorced?
For reasons of privacy and other legislation and regulations, we are not permitted to mention data about your former partner on your UPS. However, if you made agreements with your former partner during your divorce or end of your registered partnership about the equalization (apportionment) of your pension (retirement pension and/or pre-pension capital and/or pre-pension), and you have forwarded these agreements to us and you have received a confirmation from us regarding the apportionment, then in this UPS, your pension will be reduced by the 'equalized pension' (the pension for your former partner). If your former partner dies, we will raise your pension back to the equalized pension.
Your former partner may also have a claim to a special partner’s pension. If you received confirmation of the amount of the special partner’s pension that your former partner is entitled to, then it has already been deducted from the amount of partner’s pension you see on your UPS. Please feel free to contact us if it is not clear to you whether your current partner's pension has already been reduced by your former partner's special partner's pension. If your former partner dies, we will add his or her claims back to your partner’s pension under certain conditions.
If you have made conversion agreements with your former partner, and you have forwarded the conversion agreements to the pension fund, and you have received a confirmation, the UPS will only show your own pension entitlements after the conversion. In that case, your former partner has his or her own pension entitlement from the conversion.
If you have agreed that your former partner will fully relinquish equalized pension and/or special partner's pension, and the pension fund has confirmed this, you will of course retain your pension entitlements in full.
For more information on pensions and divorce, check the website under 'What happens if.... Divorce and pension'.
For anyone who is still accruing pension is determined based on their pensionable salary and the part-time percentage. The employer forwards this information to the pension fund on an annual basis. In this way, both the individual and the general salary increases are automatically included in the new annual accrual. SPF's pension scheme aims to increase the accrued pension by the same percentage as the CLA salaries. Indexation is, however, granted conditionally. The question of whether indexation is possible depends in part on the fund's financial situation and statutory regulations.