PMT and PME, the industry-wide schemes for the Dutch metal sector, are considering plans to inform participants of their individual entitlements to pension assets, with a view to restoring faith in the industry.

They said they agreed in principle with union FNV’s call for pension funds to clarify how much money they had “reserved” for each individual participant.

The €68bn PMT said it planned to discuss the matter with “two other large sector schemes”, and that it had put the matter on the Dutch Pensions Federation’s agenda, in order to flesh out the concept and agree on a uniform approach.

The €381bn civil service scheme ABP and €185bn healthcare pension fund PFZW said that they, too, supported the proposal.

PFZW said participants would appreciate the idea, and that it was looking into the best way to present the information, while ABP said it was about to start an experiment among its participants to gauge their response.

FNV put forward the idea of calculating a personal share of pension assets – pension rights multiplied by funding – as a potential means of increasing participants’ confidence in the industry.

PMT and PME echoed this view, with the latter noting that “participants sometimes fear there will be no pension left the moment they retire”.

It added: “By providing them regularly with a personal statement about how much has been set aside for them, we aim to allay their concerns.”

David van As – director at BpfBouw, the €55bn sector scheme for the Dutch building industry – said his scheme’s board would also discuss the idea.

Contrary to the FNV’s proposal, the Social and Economic Council (SER) is assessing a variant for a future pensions system comprising individual pensions accrual, under which the assets are to be individually owned.

The union, however, does not support this proposal.

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