Answers to questions from pension recipients

No. Compensation is intended for participants who may be worse off because the current system for building up a pension is being scrapped. As pensioners no longer build up a pension, they are not affected in this way and therefore do not receive compensation. Pensioners do share in the division of the fund’s assets in the move to the new scheme.

For pensioners, nothing changes about the existing partner’s pension. If you die, your partner (if you have one) will receive a partner’s pension for life. This is 70% of your retirement pension by default, unless you chose a different ratio when you retired.

Under the new scheme, your pension payment is adjusted once a year (on 1 July) based on the investment returns achieved and other factors. If returns are positive, your pension can go up. If returns are negative, your pension can go down.

After the move to the new scheme, we will be able to increase pensions permanently from 1 January, as a one-off. You’ll receive a first estimate of this by the end of November at the latest. We expect you to receive the higher amount from April. That will include the increases for the months from 1 January onwards.

In November 2026 you will receive a forecast letter. This sets out what the move to the new pension scheme is expected to mean for your pension. According to the current planning, we expect you to receive your pension under the new scheme from April 2027. In April, the differences for the first months of 2027 will also be settled. From May 2027 you will then receive the monthly pension amount that applies up to and including June 2028.

To limit large fluctuations in pension payments, the fund is taking two measures:

• Good and bad investment returns are spread over three years. This means positive and negative results feed through into your pension payment gradually.
• A risk-sharing reserve is also being set up. This reserve is intended solely for pensioners and can be used to absorb reductions in pensions over the coming 12 months, in full or in part.

These measures mean your pension still moves with the returns, but large fluctuations are kept to a minimum as far as possible.

Yes. Once the new pension scheme has been introduced, pensioners will be able to choose between:

• a variable pension with Pensioenfonds Robeco;
• a fixed pension with an insurer.

The fund itself only offers a variable pension. With a variable pension, your pension is adjusted each year based on the returns achieved. This means your pension can go up, but it can also go down. Over the long term, a variable pension is expected to produce a higher pension payment than a fixed one.

If you choose a fixed pension, you move to an insurer. The level of your pension is then fixed, and you no longer benefit from any positive investment returns in future. A fixed pension requires you to take action yourself. You will be informed later about when and how you can make this choice.