Last year, inflation in the Netherlands was very high, reaching 16.9% by the end of October 2022. To determine the inflation rate, we take the consumer price index at the end of October. We compare the inflation rate at that point with the inflation rate as at 30 October of the year before. At the end of October 2023, the overall consumer price index (CPI) for households in the Netherlands was -2.0%. 

That may seem odd, given that prices in supermarkets have risen over the past year. And yet, the CPI has declined slightly. This is partly because Statistics Netherlands (CBS), which calculates the CPI, changed its calculation method midway this year. The CPI also declined because price rises were less steep than last year. All in all, we now have a lower price index than in October 2022. The rules for indexation of pensions dictate that we cannot increase pensions in that case.

For more information, click here.

Working on a part-time basis is popular. It enables you to spend more time with your family or on caregiving, or simply to do things you enjoy doing. Everyone knows that reducing your working hours means your income will be lower.

What most people don't realise is that you also build up less pension. Online platform 'Money Wise’’ (Wijzer in geldzaken) has found that 70% of Dutch people who recently reduced their working hours did not consider the impact on their pension. If you reduce your working hours, you will also have less money to spend later in life. Were you aware of that?

If you’d like to find out more, check out online platform ‘Money Wise’ (Wijzer in geldzaken).

We can now announce the funding ratios of our funds as at 30 November 2023: The monthly funding ratio was 131% and the policy funding ratio was 128%.

In November and early December, we organised eight pension webinars under the themes ‘Retiring soon’ (“Pensioen in zicht”) and ‘How leaving the company will affect my pension’ (“Uit dienst en mijn pension”). We were very happy to see there were very many applicants. The webinars were overbooked by 3x! And after the webinars, the participants gave us high scores. Of course, we’re very happy with that.

The huge number of applicants meant many of them had to be placed on waiting lists. We will be organising a new series of webinars, to give more people the opportunity to take part. There will be nine webinars in January, February and March. Dates of these webinars:

• 17, 24 and 31 January
• 7, 14 and 28 February
• 13, 20 and 27 March

You can sign up via www.pensioenwebinars.nl. We are organising these webinars for various audiences.