Dutch retirees file a lawsuit against the pension fund due to missing increases
A number of Dutch retirees have launched legal proceedings against pension funds transitioning to the new pension system, accusing them of withholding pension increases owed for years. The lawsuit targets funds that have not compensated retirees for previously unimplemented indexing.
The PensioenVoldoen Foundation (Pension Compliance Foundation) announced that it will resort to the courts against the PFZW fund (Pension Fund for Health and Social Care). The fund is set to transition to the new system on January 1, where all participants will receive an increase of at least 7 percent in their pensions.
According to the head of the institution, Rob de Brauer, this uniform increase is significantly unfair. He emphasized that the assets of pension funds are allocated to pay pensions, including unpaid inflation compensation and accumulated indexing. Treating all participants the same way, regardless of their subscription duration, ignores the rights of retirees accumulated over many years.
With the implementation of the new system, retirees and other participants lose their right to claim the previous indexing permanently. The PensioenVoldoen organization represents about 40,000 retirees and is seeking a court ruling to compel PFZW to pay the unpaid increases before the new system is implemented.
Rob de Brouwer described the situation as a form of expropriation without compensation. He explained that a person who has contributed to the PFZW fund for 40 years has an indexing gap of about 32 percent, while someone who has contributed for only four years has a gap of 6.9 percent, yet both receive the same increase under the new rules.
The dispute focuses on the method of distributing the assets of the pension fund. The PensioenVoldoen organization is asking the Dutch court to consider referring the case to the European Court of Justice to determine whether this transfer violates European rules regarding expropriation.
For its part, the PFZW fund rejected these accusations, asserting that the distribution of pension assets is done fairly and balanced. The fund added that the distribution method has been approved by De Nederlandsche Bank (the Dutch central bank), the national financial supervisory authority.