NETHERLANDS – The Dutch government and Parliament have to repair a mistake in the country’s new Pensions bill, it has emerged.

As a result of the mishap, the new bill allows Dutch employees to keep their tax breaks on VUT and pre-pension premiums until 2014.

This completely opposes what the Dutch government had initially set out to do, namely scrapping tax breaks for VUT and pre-pension premiums in 2006 (with the exception of those who are 55 years of age or older on 1 January 2005).

The new bill was passed last week after a long and heated debate in Parliament. This week, however, Secretary of Social Affairs and Employment Aart-Jan de Geus admitted during a debate on another matter the mistake had been made. De Geus has now proposed an amendment to the bill.

According to Dutch parliamentary rules, it only takes one MP to push through a new vote on the entire bill. This could lead to huge problems for the government, because they want to push through the changes by 2006 in time for the next general election.

“I have to really force myself not to take advantage of this,” the Dutch media quoted Kees Vendrik, MP for the Green Party, as saying. The Green Party had voted against the new bill. “Such a colossal mistake only shows you how sensitive and vulnerable the new bill is.”

The new bill is yet to pass through the Eerste Kamer, or higher chamber, before being turned into law.