Pensioners at the 12 largest Dutch pension funds that moved to a new defined contribution (DC) arrangement on 1 January will see their pensions rise by an average of 13.6% as pension funds are distributing their buffers to members, according to calculations by Aon.
Exactly how much pensioners will benefit will only become clear over the course of this year as pension funds still have to determine their exact funding ratios at year-end.
Moreover, the expected bonus varies greatly from fund to fund; from about 5% for Stipp, the scheme for temporary workers, to at least 25% for the schemes for painters and housing corporations.
Pensioners at construction sector scheme Bpf Bouw and hospitality sector fund Horeca & Catering will likely also receive a pension increase of more than 20%.
Of the 12 pension funds examined, the latter scheme had the highest current funding ratio at 156%.
Taking this into account, an increase of 20% still seems rather low, acknowledged actuary Corine Reedijk of Aon.
“Pension regulator DNB requires a balanced use of the surplus benefiting all members equally, so you can’t just give pensioners an extra 40%,” explained Reedijk.
Funding ratios up
There is a good chance that the picture will have become even more favourable in the last month of 2025. Both Aon and Aegon Asset Management calculated that the average current funding ratio of Dutch pension funds rose again in December.
According to Aon, the rise was mainly due to an increase in interest rates and the resulting 2.8% decrease in liabilities. Over the whole of 2025, Aon’s indicative average funding ratio of the average Dutch pension fund rose from 116% to about 129%.
Aegon AM estimates that the funding ratio increased by 1.4 percentage points in December, ending at 129.5% as of 31 December.
This article was first published on Pensioen Pro, IPE’s Dutch sister publication. It was translated and adapted for IPE by Tjibbe Hoekstra.
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