“Choices don’t automatically work out” Choice is a vital element in the design of a pension system. This study shows that there is considerable appetite for having options in the accumulation phase. However, people with little retirement savings choose to temporarily suspend their contributions just as often as those with considerable savings. Any choices ultimately offered should therefore be designed responsibly. Even in an…

“Financial incentives improve labour participation of partially disabled persons, but they are not effective for low-income earners” The number of people receiving disability benefits in the Netherlands is increasing. The disability scheme for partially disabled workers (WGA) uses financial incentives to increase labour effort when workers exhaust their first stage benefit in the two-staged disability scheme. Do these financial incentives induce work resumption? Read…

“Participants’ freedom of choice should not lead to undesirable pension pay-out situations” Individuals can influence the drawdown rate of their second-pillar pension assets in various ways. This paper studies how choices offered by Dutch pension funds impact the payout stream. We show that too much freedom of choice could potentially lead to undesirable situations where the participant receives far less pension compared to the…

“Compulsory pension funds not obliged to implement changes agreed upon by social partners” Two recent examples in Dutch case law illustrate the lack of clarity about who is authorised to implement changes in compulsory industry-wide pension funds: the social partners or the pension fund. Such clarity is needed because pension schemes will have to change with the switch from the current to the new…

“Public support for lower public pension age in certain cases, but more measures needed in care and work to reduce the burden on older employees” In the future, older employees will face the double burden of working for longer and providing informal care. This study explored how Dutch citizens view lower public pension ages in certain cases and which factors play a role in…

“A substantial reduction of inequalities in life expectancy requires policy actions on a broad range of health determinants” This study assessed the effect of different risk factors on life expectancy differences between men and women in the Netherlands aged 35 to 80 years with a high or low education. The data were compared with figures for Northwest Europe. Risk factors considered were manual profession…

“HR policy aimed at sustainable employability helps ageing people stay in work” For many individuals it is challenging to continue to work until their retirement age. If they can no longer rely on income from work, individuals need to draw on social support schemes or their own means to provide for themselves. Longer working lives may improve ageing people’s financial position. A combination of…

“Partial retirement allows to reduce workload and maintain an adequate pension income.” Partial retirement before the state pension age allows people to reduce workload and maintain an adequate pension income at the same time. After a career of full-time work, those who retire part-time instead of full-time are much more likely to attain an income replacement of 70% during partial retirement, and subsequently a…

“Job characteristics such as flexibility relate to preferences to continue working for longer” Self-employed people on average prefer to continue working two years longer than their salaried counterparts. They are also more often uncertain about their future retirement age. Previous research suggests that this difference could partly be explained by the relatively limited pension savings of the self-employed. This study examines whether job characteristics…

“Combining a fixed and variable annuity has added value for participants” The Premium Schemes (Improvements) Act (Wet verbeterde premieregeling, Wvp) allows for continued investing following a person’s retirement date, but this is not without risks. We assess a number of continued investment strategies via a simulation study based on financial scenarios of De Nederlandsche bank (the Dutch central bank). We compare alternative ways of…