What are Dutch companies, government, social partners doing to retain and retrain older workers?
BVP: We have a big debate about getting rid of early retirement. Various parties and government reached an agreement last autumn to curb early retirement and make the statutory retirement age 65. The idea that retirement age will become flexible has not come out yet. People are now paying for early retirement schemes. The main solution to making retirement age flexible was to shift contributions to the old age pension. In the Netherlands, the occupational pension system has two parts – you can pay into an early retirement scheme or you can pay into an old age pension. The government changed the contribution rules so that it’s not efficient anymore to pay into the early retirement scheme, thus, shifting greater contributions to the old age pension. Now people will have more old age pension rights than before and can shift some of the assets to allow them to retire early. We’ve done this with occupational plans, but not Social Security. This will be the next debate in the Netherlands. AI
