pension

The financial position of the Netherlands' large pension funds improved somewhat in the last months of 2019, and all four large funds are now closer to reaching 100 percent coverage ration, according to the funds' annual figures, NOS reports. 

The number of Dutch families getting aid from food banks increased by 8 percent in the first half of 2019, compared to the same period last year, food banks association Voedselbanken Nederland announced. The number of children being fed by food banks increased by nearly 7 percent, NOS reports.

Minister Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs and Employment reached an agreement in principle on a new pension system with employers and employees. On Wednesday, the trade unions and other involved parties will present this agreement to their members to vote on it, NU.nl reports.

Monday will be a chaotic day for people who commute to work by public transport. NS announced that it will join an early morning strike held by city- and regional public transit companies, AD reports.

The public transit companies are protesting for freezing the retirement age at 66. For that reason they will strike from 6:00 a.m. for 66 minutes, trade union CNV Vakmensen said. The strike will likely also cause delays after its end.

34 elderly Dutch people are receiving a supplementary pension from Germany for their years of service with the Waffen-SS, an armed wing of the Nazi Party's SS organization, current affairs program EenVandaag reports based on its own research.

Most Dutch people are not building sufficient financial buffers for a financially healthy future, Rabobank concludes based on a study by Nibud. Only two in five Dutch put money aside for training, income decreases, pensions, or healthcare, ANP reports.

Nibud questioned 2 thousand people for this study. Nearly half of respondents indicated that they are concerned about money matters in the future, yet most do nothing about it. Around a third don't have the money to set aside. But of the two thirds who do have financial room to set money aside, only 39 percent actually do so. 

Less than 20 percent of the 873 thousand freelancers and self-employed in the Netherlands have insurance against occupational disability, according to figures by Statistics Netherlands and TNO. 70 percent of this group don't have insurance because they can't afford it. 

A quarter of this group say they can carry this risk by themselves and just over 20 percent can fall back on their partner's income. 14 percent don't have insurance because they don't trust insurers. This is especially common in the construction industry, according to the stats office.

About 1,500 psychiatrists working at 41 mental health institutions went on strike on Tuesday in protest against their pension plans. They want their employers to pay the employer's contribution to their pension plans, which they've been withholding for two years, ANP reports.

For the strike the psychiatrists worked on a weekend schedule on Tuesday, only giving emergency treatments. All regular treatments and sessions were canceled. According to the psychiatrists, this was the first time they took action against their employers. They felt they have no other choice.

Nibud is concerned about the financial situation of future pensioners. The combination of the rising cot of living and the current group of freelancers and entrepreneurs building less pension, leads the institute to expect that the current under-65-year-olds will soon have a quarter too little pension

Nearly 40 percent of Dutch pensioners are struggling to get by on their retirement income, according to a survey done by interest association ANBO among 9 thousand retirees

For 553 thousand of the more than 1.35 million freelancers in the Netherlands, the money they earn as a freelancer is a sideline income. The bulk of their income consists of wages, pension or benefit, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Wednesday.