The Dutch pension funds for shipping pilots (Loodsen) and the staff fund of pension provider APG have made their first pension payments according to their new defined contribution (DC) pension arrangements to participants. At Loodsen, pensions have increased by 8.1%, while at the APG staff fund there was an average increase of 7.9%.
Both funds reported this on Tuesday at a press conference held at APG’s office in Amsterdam on the occasion of the first increased payments made by the ‘early birds’ in the pension transition.
The third ‘early bird’ fund, PWRI, the sector fund for disabled workers, was not present at the meeting.
At the APG staff pension fund, the pension increase for a pensioner depends on their tenure at the fund, explained the fund’s president Tinka den Arend.
Everyone had a one-off increase of 4.3%. In addition, an increase of 23% of the indexation that a participant had missed individually was granted. The total increase in pension is therefore different for each pensioner, but is on average 7.9%.
At Loodsen, the increase is the same for all pensioners at 8.1%.
In addition to the increased pension for February, both funds also made an additional payment for January. In that month, the ‘old’ amount that participants received in 2024 was still paid.
External accountant
It is possible that there will be another smaller adjustment to pensions in the summer, said Rajesh Grobbe, director of Loodsen. However, this will likely be a small second increase rather than a reduction, he said.
At the APG staff fund, the calculations also have to be finalised by an external accountant. However, any difference that follows from this will be added to the fund’s return, said den Arend. This will then affect the next adjustment of benefits, as of 1 January 2026.
The accrued and expected pensions of active and inactive participants will also increase at both funds. However, neither of them would mention average percentages or bandwidths, as this varies greatly from individual to individual.
At the APG scheme, the funding ratio at the end of last year was 121.4%, while at Loodsen it stood at 125.4%.
The APG fund reported on its website that 5.4% of assets had been used to fill a rainy-day buffer to protect pensions from falling, called the solidarity buffer. Besides, 3.6% of assets had been used to compensate members in certain age groups for missed future accruals.
At Loodsen, 7.5% of assets went to this solidarity buffer and about 2% to compensate members for missed future accruals, Grobbe reported.
APG has more than 8,000 participants, of whom more than 2,000 are pensioners. Loodsen has about 1,350 participants, 880 of whom are pensioners.
This article was first published on Pensioen Pro, IPE’s Dutch sister publication. It was translated and adapted for IPE by Tjibbe Hoekstra
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