A new pension system, why?

25 July 2022

In the Netherlands, our pension is well-organised! Your future income consists of 3 components:

The foundation is your state pension benefit.
You receive this monthly benefit from the government once you have reached the state pension age. The level of the benefit depends on the years that you lived and/or had a partner in the Netherlands.
In addition, you accrue pension via your employer Ahold Delhaize. Below, you can read about how this scheme currently works and what will change.
Perhaps you are also saving money for later yourself. You can supplement your pension with, for instance, savings, an annuity or by repaying the mortgage of your owner-occupied home, as a result of which you will need less money later.

How does your pension scheme at Ahold Delhaize work now?
The pension benefit is the key element in the current pension scheme. You accrue a portion of your ultimate pension annually. You do not do this on your entire salary. In 2022, you do not accrue pension on about €17,350 (on a full-time basis). This threshold amount (we call this the pension deductible) applies because from the state pension age, you receive a state pension benefit from the government. If you work at Ahold Delhaize up to your state pension age then you will have accrued approximately 70 to 80% of your average salary as a pension benefit (and state pension). Every period, you – via your salary – and Ahold Delhaize pay an amount for this pension accrual: we call this the pension contribution. You pay about one fifth of the contribution, the employer pays the rest. A considerable part of your contribution is invested collectively by Ahold Delhaize Pension so that we can pay you and your partner a pension from these investment proceeds later. We use a small part of your pension contribution to pay the costs of your pension, such as the administration charges and investment costs. In the picture below, you will clearly see what you personally invest and what your return on that will be when you retire (from our 2021 annual report):

Why is change necessary?

More information

On average, we are getting older
When today’s pensioners started saving for their pension, the average life expectancy was 75. But today, we are getting older and we enjoy our pension longer. Therefore, payments need to continue longer, and consequently more pension needs to be paid, than expected.
We change employer more frequently
Young people contribute towards the pension of older people. If everyone works at the same employer their entire life, that works well. However, these days we change jobs more often, we occasionally stop working for a while or work less, or we start working for ourselves. In that case, the present pension system does not work well.
The changing economy
The present pension system is less in line with the changing economy. For instance, the interest rate was low for a long time. A low interest rate makes the pension more expensive. Because the pension has become more expensive, indexation (increase) of your pension has not been forthcoming for a long time. This is desirable though, so that your pension increases with the prices as much as possible and does not reduce in value due to inflation.