Dutch state pension paid in nearly every country worldwide as more retirees move abroad

The number of Dutch State Pension (AOW) recipients living abroad is growing. Currently, around 340,000 people are receiving an AOW benefit abroad, and that is expected to increase to almost half a million in 15 years. The Social Insurance Bank (SVB) already pays AOW benefits “in virtually all countries worldwide,” the bank told the Telegraaf.

The Netherlands currently has 3.7 million AOW recipients, including approximately 340,000 abroad, according to SVB figures. The bank expects those figures to increase to 4.6 million AOW recipients, including 470,000 abroad, in 2040, “reaching half a million three years later.”

The figures include people who lived in the Netherlands temporarily and accrued AOW while working here. But many older people are also emigrating to warmer climates.

Everyone living in the Netherlands accrues AOW, amounting to about 2 percent per year. People who have lived in the Netherlands for 50 years receive a full AOW from age 67. Dutch people who work abroad for a time or immigrants who came to the Netherlands later in life only receive a partial state pension when they reach retirement age.

According to SVB, a growing number of people need supplementary income support due to an incomplete AOW. The number of people receiving the Supplementary Income Support for the Elderly (AIO), an income-related scheme that helps retirees reach subsistence level, increased by approximately 35 percent in ten years. Last year, over 56,000 people received this benefit. “This growth will continue in the coming years,” the SVB said.