NETHERLANDS – The official retirement age in the Netherlands should be raised from 65 to 67, Dutch top civil servants have warned.

In a leaked secret policy document officials from the finance, economic affairs and social affairs ministries say the official state pension age needs to be raised while further reforms of Holland’s social security system are needed in order to keep economic growth at its current levels.

The civil servants all sit on the Central Economic Commission (CEC), which advises The Hague on economic policy.

The document was written in response to a recent analysis – deemed “too optimistic” by top government officials – of the Dutch economy by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB). In this analysis, the CPB said the Netherlands will remain a prosperous nation in years to come, in spite of a rapidly ageing workforce.

The CEC document clashes with official government policy. The Dutch government wants to keep official retirement age at 65, although secretary of social affairs Aart Jan De Geus recently said he was looking into the more flexible Swedish model. In Sweden, workers are allowed to retire between the age of 62 and 70.

Dutch MPs, led by the opposition Labour Party (PvdA), had recently called for more flexibility in the retirement system.