Pension build-up

The build-up consists of all pension claims until 31 December 2005 which entitle pensioners to an annual payment, on average per population group. It comprises the sum of pension claims and pension capital that has been built up by the participants in a pension fund. The amount is the gross built-up pension entitlement that a person would receive yearly (before tax), if he/she were currently 65 years of age and was to retire today. Future income from labour and other individual choices and circumstances are not taken into account.

The average is calculated by dividing the sum of the pension build-up of a population group by the number of people in that group. Wherever applicable – to achieve uniform pension build-up statistics - surviving relatives’ pension and pension capital are converted and added to the labour-related pension. Thus, statistics are unaffected by the specific characteristics of the various pension schemes.

The built-up pension is not always equal to the future pension payments, because several restrictions – not dwelt upon in this article – may apply.

The number of over-40s belonging to the second-generation of people with a non-western background is very small. This applies in particular to second-generation Turks and Moroccans. Therefore, the figures shown in the second graph only refer to 35 to 40-year-olds, although a better insight in the total pension build-up is acquired, if all age categories are taken into consideration.