‘Compensation for those with a pension cut’ | Financial

That confirms lawyer and professor of European pension law Hans van Meerten after earlier reports from consumer program Kassa. “It could be billions of euros,” he claims.

Travel work Pensions

Van Meerten is preparing a potentially influential lawsuit against employees in the travel industry who built up pension at Reiswerk Pensioenen. They were cut considerably after their ailing fund was taken over by pension fund PGB.

The fund had about 30,000 participants, who have been cut to almost 19%. “For example, the judge could decide that any discount above 5% is disproportionate,” says Van Meerten. “This case may involve millions of euros.”

property law

The lawyer, who is also a professor at Utrecht University, argues that there is a property right to the accrued pension, which cannot be tampered with just like that. In addition, the fund participants have never agreed to the discount on their pension or to the takeover of their fund.

If the court decides that individual consent is necessary for such measures, this will have major consequences for the Dutch pension system. It would be difficult for pension funds to implement large discounts.

The switch to the new pension system could also be endangered because individual participants would also have to give permission for this. “Then there is a problem for Minister Koolmees of Social Affairs,” says Van Meerten. He wants to submit the summons for the case of the participants of Reiswerk Pensioenen this month. “I hope that a verdict will be reached within six months.”

Disappointing

“We understand, of course, that lowering pensions is disappointing,” Reiswerk Pensioenen writes in a response to Kassa. According to the fund, the pension reduction was necessary to offer a future-proof perspective. PGB says that the decision to discount was taken before it took over Reiswerk and does not want to say anything about it substantively.

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), which supervises, has stated that it assesses whether pensions have been transferred properly from one pension fund to another. DNB can impose a ban if a transfer or a pension discount does not meet the statutory requirements. That did not happen in this case.

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