Your new pension: an interim update
What is important to know for now? We provide you with a brief update explaining what we have been doing and how you can follow the latest developments.
All agreements set out in Transition Plan
Employer TNO and employees have agreed on new pension rules. These rules are set out in the transition plan. That transition plan applies to TNO and, in principle, also to the other member companies of TNO Pension Fund. On 3 February 2025, the TNO Executive Board finalised this Transition Plan for TNO Pension Fund. This is an important milestone on the way to the new pension scheme.
Would you like to follow the developments? You can.
You can of course inspect the plan. You can also find the Transition Plan on the website under 'Documents'. In the plan, you will, for example, read more about:
- When the new pension scheme will take effect
- What the new rules will roughly look like
- The conversion of the accrued pensions to the new rules
- The fairest possible transition from the old rules to the new rules
eTNOs’s right to be heard
In Other News, you can read that the association of retired TNO employees, eTNOs, is concerned about what it sees as disproportionate disadvantages for pensioners and that they have made suggestions for changes. The annex to the Transition Plan contains the findings of the eTNOs’s Right to be Heard. This is followed by the social partners' response to the findings arising from the Right to be Heard.
Explanation in the webinar
Do you want to know a bit more and would you like an additional explanation, we can very well imagine that. So be sure to rewatch the webinar from 4 February 2025. During the webinar, Suzanne van Kooten (director), Hans Veltman (deputy director) and Nancy Westerlaken (chair of the board) of TNO Pension Fund explained the past developments and an outlook was provided. Soon you will find answers to frequently asked questions from the webinar on the webinar page in the Special edition on the new pension scheme.
The next step
We now move on to the implementation plan. This does overlap with the Transition Plan, as calculations made for the Transition Plan are now also needed for the Implementation Plan. We are expected to finalise that by mid-2025. As of that time, De Nederlandsche Bank will start reviewing TNO Pension Fund's documents.
To that end, the proposed decision on converting the new pension scheme will also be submitted to the Accountability Body, which will issue its opinion on it sometime in April.
Step by step, the pension scheme is thus becoming more concrete, and it has to be because 1 July 2026 is when we want to move to that new scheme.
Practically speaking: how will this affect you?
You can also tell that there will be a new pension scheme by looking at the current one. We've briefly set out those points here:
- The supplementary pension schemes will end. New participation is no longer possible. Something new will take its place in the short term, but not right from the start of the new pension scheme. Have you saved capital in the TOP scheme in recent years? If so, see what you can do with it.
- Pension calculations can still be made. If you want to retire before 1 July 2026, you can see how much pension you have accrued based on your details using the pension planner (in Dutch) and in a pension meeting.
We will keep you informed. If there is something important to report, you will receive a mailing from us. Another video message will also be circulated sometime this spring. And, of course, you can always check out the news on our website. Or go to the Special edition with all the information about the new pension scheme.
How this will affect you: the differences
Under the Future Pensions Act, your pension will soon change. We can imagine that you would like an overview of the differences from the current pension scheme.
We have listed the main differences for you below:
- Pension contributions will no longer be calculated based on the wage bill, but based on the pensionable earnings. That way, the state pension benefit is taken into account.
- Accrued pension capital moves with economic trends. Your accrued pension can rise and fall more quickly.
- The TOP scheme no longer exists in the new scheme. If you still have accrued TOP capital, it will be converted into your individual pension capital.
- The Extra Pension Scheme no longer exists in the new scheme. If you have accrued Extra pension capital, it will be converted into your individual pension capital.
- From 1 January 2028 at the earliest, a new additional savings option will be available to voluntarily supplement your pension.
- The Net Pension Scheme no longer exists in the new scheme. Accrued Net pension capital cannot be converted into individual pension capital; an alternative solution is being worked out.
- Supplementing disability pension in case of income above the maximum daily wage limit is no longer possible within the new pension scheme; an alternative solution is being worked out.
- Surviving dependants’ pension will become a risk-based (insurance) scheme. Accrued entitlements to surviving dependants’ pension will remain.
- In the event of an employee's death before retirement, the partner's pension equals 35% of the pensionable income, supplemented by any partner's pension entitlements accrued up to 1 July 2026. The 10% additional partner's pension for employees who were still employed by the company will lapse.
- In the event of the employee’s death, the orphan's pension will increase from 16% of the retirement pension – as if the employee had remained employed until their state pension date – to 20% of the pensionable income, but will not be doubled if a child no longer has both parents.
- Maximum age for payment of orphan's pension will be raised from 21 to 25.