The Netherlands 2011

The Netherlands’ retirement income system comprises a flat-rate public pension and a quasi-mandatory earnings-related occupational pension linked to industrial agreements. Most employees belong to these occupational schemes which are industry-wide defined benefit plans with the earnings measure based on lifetime average earnings.

The following table shows the position of the Netherlands when compared to the 15 other countries and some of the indicators that either scored relatively well or poorly.

The overall index value for the Dutch system could be increased by:

• introducing a minimum access age so that it is clear that benefits are preserved for retirement purposes
• raising the level of household saving
• increasing the labour force participation rate amongst older workers
• providing greater protection of members’ accrued benefits in the case of fraud, mismanagement or employer insolvency

The Dutch index value fell very slightly from 78.3 in 2010 to 77.9 in 2011 due to small falls in both the adequacy and sustainability sub-indexes.