Supplementary pensions: what’s new on 1 January 2019?

Following the transposition of a European directive, Belgium extends the access conditions for employees to supplementary pension schemes. The aim is to facilitate the mobility of employees within the Member States. As from 1 January 2019, the affiliation of employees who are eligible for a supplementary pension scheme within their company will be immediate.

Today

An employer who introduces a supplementary pension scheme in his company may restrict access to it to employees of at least 25 years of age and/or employees with at least one year of seniority. These conditions of age and length of service may be cumulated.

Example: The employees of company A have access to a group insurance. This group insurance is financed by contributions from the employer and the employee. The employer stipulated in his regulations that the employees could only join after 1 year of seniority.

Tomorrow

As from 1 January 2019, the affiliation of employees who are eligible for a supplementary pension scheme will be immediate. The minimum age and waiting period criteria have been abolished, both for employees and for newly recruited employees.

Example: The salaried employees of company X have access to a group insurance. This group insurance is financed by contributions from the employer and the employee. As from 1 January 2019, the employer can no longer impose a seniority condition for affiliation. All employees referred to in the group insurance regulations and who are already employed or who will be employed as from 1 January 2019, will have the right to participate in the scheme that has been introduced in their company.

Moreover, when the employee leaves, he can ask for the reserves he has acquired in the framework of his supplementary pension to be transferred (e.g. to the group insurance of his new employer). However, the law provides for an exception to this principle when acquired reserves do not exceed 150 euros (amount to be indexed) at the date of departure.

Consequences

As from 1 January 2019, employees shall be immediately affiliated, as from their entry into service and without any condition as to age and/or length of service, to the supplementary pension scheme introduced in their company, provided that they qualify for that scheme. They can always consult the information on their supplementary pensions on the website 'mypension.be' (https://mypension.onprvp.fgov.be/nl/mypension/Pages/default.aspx).

Employers, for their part, must make sure that they adjust their regulation or pension plan now that the two criteria mentioned above have been removed and that they contact their pension institution for the surplus.

Source: Act of 27 June 2018 on the transposition of Directive 2014/50/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on the minimum requirements for enhancing employee mobility between Member States by improving the acquisition and preservation of supplementary pension rights, BOG 5 July 2018.