NETHERLANDS - The Dutch pensions system is already fairly ageing-resistant, and taxation of the state pension and raising the official retirement age aren't necessary, says civil service pension fund ABP.

"The national pensions provision of €625bn is sufficient to honour the present pension promises, without the need of raising taxes or contributions," it states in a position paper on ageing.

"However, pension funds must anticipate ongoing individualisation, by offering more options within collective schemes," it said. Politicians should give pension schemes the legal means to enable this, the scheme indicated.

"Because of the rising tax on paid second-pillar pensions, the rising numbers of future pensioners will pay for the increasing costs of the state pension AOW themselves," ABP stated.

It was referring to figures of the national planning bureau, or CPB, which concluded that the government need to cut spending by 2,6% in 2011, in order to anticipate the rising costs of AOW.

ABP questions the fact that the CPB has based its calculations on a interest rate of 3%. "A rate of 4% will decrease the necessary cuts to 0.9%," it commented.

According to ABP, the change from final to average salary schemes, and the introduction of pension schemes with a flexible retirement age, have kept the Dutch pension system ageing-resistant so far.

From a financial perspective, the rising life-expectancy is not a reason for raising the official retirement age of 65, the civil service scheme concluded. "According the rules of the new financial assessment framework FTK, we have already incorporated a rise of the life-expectancy till 2050," it said.

With over 2.5m members and €190bn of assets, ABP is one of the world's largest pension funds.

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