NETHERLANDS - The Dutch government must postpone the limitation on tax breaks on the early retirement schemes VUT and pre-pension by a year, say insurers – who are warning of chaos.

“If the implementation will go ahead as of January 1 as planned, there will be chaos which will dupe hundreds of thousands of employees,” said Niek Hoek, the new chairman of the Verbond van Verzekeraars in the employers’ magazine Forum.

The organisation fears many problems for the approximately 480,000 employees (at 30,000 employers), whose pension schemes need to be adjusted next year. “To me implementing all the changes this year is totally impossible,” Hoek added.

He criticised the accumulation of new rules, like International Financial Reporting Standards, and new legislation. “The tax service won’t be ready for checking the fiscal solidity of the new arrangements either,” he claimed.

Hoek, who is also chairman of Delta Lloyd, is worried about the slow pace of implementation of the new rules in Collective Labour Agreements, or CAOs.

“Of the 400 which need adjustment, only 30 new CAOs with concrete pension arrangements have been agreed,” he explained.

One of the issues, which are reportedly slowing down the process, are many questions on the new ‘levensloop’, or life course, scheme, which allows workers to save for extra leave.

“If the cabinet doesn’t respond, the pensions regulator DNB and the Authority Financial Markets should intervene,” Hoek said. A postponement of one year will deprive the national coffers of no more than €15m, the insurers claimed.

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