Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012 - American Chamber of ...

employ employees of 62 or older. To this end, detailed requirements
apply.
15.6 Dutch Pension System
The pension system in the Netherlands is based on a three-tier system:
a) The first tier of the Dutch pension system is the national
pension insurance known as the AOW, a national insurance
on which the premiums are levied with and part of personal
income tax rates. There is no relation between the amount of
the AOW benefits and the amount of contributions paid. All
residents of the Netherlands are entitled to AOW as of the
first of the month in which they reach the age of 65. A
legislative proposal has been submitted to the House of
Representatives in order to accomplish that as of 1 January
2012, entitlements to AOW will exist as of the date one
indeed has reached the age of 65 (instead of the first of the
month in which the age of 65 will be reached). The
legislative proposal has not accepted yet.
Furthermore, in June 2011, the social partners (trade union
federations and employers federations) and the Minister of
Social Affairs reached agreement to increase the pensionable
age for the AOW to 66 in 2020. It is expected that the age for
AOW will further increase to 67 in 2025. A legislative
proposal concerning this issue, which was already submitted
to the House of Representatives, will be amended in this
respect.
b) The second tier of the pension system consists of old-age
pension benefits, agreed upon by or mandatorily applicable to
the employer and employee, which is supplementary to the
AOW. Sometimes, the second-tier pension includes disability
pension, supplementary to WIA benefits, or, more often, a
surviving relative pension supplementary to ANW benefits.
(See AOW, WIA and ANW benefits under 15.2 National
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