The official retirement age for the Dutch state pension (AOW) will not be raised in 2024 following a slowdown in the life expectancy forecast, Wouter Koolmees, minister for social affairs, has announced.

The state pension age in the Netherlands is based on an annual longevity estimate from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the legal formula for the retirement age.

At present, a 65-year old has a life expectancy of 20.63 years, while the AOW age has to be raised at 20.76 years.

In 2012, the cabinet decided that the AOW would gradually rise as of 2017— from 65 at the time to 67 and three months in 2022 — in order to keep pensions provision affordable for the future.

It included a five-year leeway to enable workers to make additional savings for their pension.

As of 2022, the official pensionable age will rise in accordance with life expectancy.

During the past few years, the government had concluded that the retirement age didn’t need to be raised further in 2022 and 2023, as life expectancy was expected to increase further, but not in a straight line.

The CBS concluded that, relative to earlier prognoses, life expectancy for 65-year olds dropped last year.

It attributed this year’s rise to fewer women dying from lung cancer, despite high mortality as a result of last winter’s flu epidemic.

Currently, the AOW age is 66. It is to increase by three months in 2019.

Since the introduction of the state pension in 1957, life expectancy for 65-year olds has increased by more than five years.

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