The head of Belgium’s pension service says a retirement age of 70 will end up on the table here too
Vincent Mahieu, the head of Belgium's Federal Pension Service, said in an interview published on 9 August that a legal retirement age of 70 will sooner or later be put on the table in Belgium as well. He described the past year as the hardest of his career, because the De Wever government's pension reform landed on his service all at once, and said it would be better to start again from a blank sheet — but that this is politically sensitive.
The reform he is administering was approved on 28 May 2026, and most of its measures apply to pensions starting from 1 January 2027. The legal retirement age itself is unchanged for now: it stays at 66 and rises to 67 in 2030. Early retirement remains possible from 60 with 44 career years, 61 with 43, 62 or 63 with 42.
The change that will catch most people out is quieter than the headline. From 2027 a full career year requires 156 worked or equivalent days instead of 104 — roughly half-time work — and it applies retroactively to years you have already worked. Part-time and interrupted careers will count as full years far less often, so many people will reach the early-retirement threshold later than they had planned. Separately, a malus permanently cuts your pension by up to 5 percent for each year you retire before the legal age if you do not meet the new effective-work conditions; the exact percentage depends on your year of birth. A bonus works the other way for people who keep working past their earliest possible date.
If you have worked part-time, taken career breaks, or built up years across more than one system — as an employee, a civil servant or self-employed — do not assume the old thresholds still apply to you. Your earliest and legal pension dates, recalculated under the new rules, are shown on mypension.be. Trade unions have published summaries of what changes, and the pension service itself can confirm how your own record has been recounted.