Minister cannot say how many job changers miss pension compensation

Social Affairs and Employment Minister Vijlbrief says he cannot assess how many people who change jobs unintentionally get no pension compensation from either their old or their new employer's fund. In answers to parliamentary questions, received on 9 November, he pointed to his earlier estimate. It put the number affected, including job changers who unintentionally missed out and those who changed jobs for other reasons without compensation, at possibly "a few tens of thousands of people".

Under the Wet toekomst pensioenen, the pension reform law, social partners must decide whether a compensation scheme is needed as part of a balanced transition and, if so, how to fund and award it. If they choose a scheme spread over time, new employees who join the pension scheme during its term, such as job changers, are also covered.

Vijlbrief said it was already made clear in the parliamentary debate that compensation schemes are expected to focus mainly on participants who work, or keep working, in the sector of the pension fund concerned. Because the need for compensation differs between sectors, there will be limited room to coordinate schemes with one another, he said.

Article 150j of the Pensioenwet requires each pension provider to set out in a communication plan how it informs participants, former participants, former partners and pensioners. That includes the consequences of the change to the pension agreement and how pension pots are handled. If compensation takes the form of extra pension credit, the plan must also state how participants are told what has been agreed.

The minister said the financial markets regulator, the AFM, stresses how important it is to inform participants well about compensation schemes and to involve them as early as possible. Pension providers and other parties involved are putting these legal requirements into practice, he said, as his letters of April and July describe.