Care and Welfare fund to increase pensions 6% next year

Pension fund Zorg & Welzijn (PFZW) will increase its participants’ pensions by 6 percent from next year. The premium that employers and employees pay together will remain the same at 25.8 percent, the pension fund for care and welfare workers announced.

PFZW chairman Joanne Kellermann explained that the rising prices are putting more and more people in trouble. “Employees and retirees in the care and welfare sector also struggle with this and sometimes cannot make ends meet. That is why we are pleased that we can increase pensions again in January, as well as the pension entitlements for those who work.”

PFZW said it uses temporary regulations to partially compensate for members’ loss of purchasing power due to the extremely high inflation. The fund already increased pensions by 2.7 percent on October 1.

On September 30 this year, PFZW’s policy funding ratio was 109.6 percent, and the actual funding ratio was 115.7 percent. This year, pension funds are allowed to increase pensions if their policy funding ratio is higher than 105 percent. The government adjusted these rules in anticipation of new regulations that will apply in the transition to the new pension system.