Employer pension: how the Dutch workplace pension works

What a pension through work is

A pension through work (pillar 2), often called an employer pension, is the pension your employer arranges for you with a pension fund or an insurer. It comes on top of the AOW (state pension), and for most people who work here for many years it pays more than the AOW. About 90% of employees in the Netherlands build one, according to the government.

Your employer chooses the scheme, or your sector does: in some sectors, every employer has to join the sector's pension fund. So you don't pick your fund, and you usually can't leave the scheme while you work there.

If you're self-employed, you don't build one through an employer, apart from a few professions with their own fund, such as doctors, physiotherapists and notaries. You can save for a pension yourself with a lijfrente.

Who pays in

The premium comes off your gross salary (before tax) every month. It's the “pensioenpremie” (pension premium) line on your payslip. Your employer usually pays about two thirds of the premium and you pay one third, though each scheme sets its own split.

You don't pay income tax on the premium now. The pension is taxed later, once it's paid out. Not all your pay counts: in 2026, pay above €137,800 a year builds no pension through work. Most schemes also leave out the first part of your pay, the franchise, because the AOW already covers it.

Building a pension through work lowers your Jaarruimte: how much you can put in a lijfrente this year and deduct from your income. The lijfrente guide shows how it's worked out.

How it builds up

Each year in the scheme adds to your pension. It's paid for life, from the pension age in your scheme, often 68. What you get depends on your pay, your years in the scheme and, under the new pension law, how the fund's investments do.

If you change jobs, what you've built stays yours. It stays with the old fund, or you can ask the new one to take it over (waardeoverdracht). So after a few jobs you often have several pensions, each with its own fund, and sometimes each from its own age.

If you leave the Netherlands, each pension stays with its fund and is paid wherever you live. The leaving the Netherlands guide explains the tax on it abroad.

Where to find yours

Log in with DigiD to mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl, which lists every pension through work you've built. The pension funds and insurers run it together, and the government points to it as the place to see how much pension you build. It shows your AOW from the SVB too, and you can read it in English or Dutch.

Each fund also sends your yearly pension statement (UPO), by post or email, or on its own site. It gives the same figures for that one fund, in more detail.

Two tabs on mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl matter for your plan:

• My pension (Mijn pensioen): what you'd get if you keep working where you do now until each pension starts. The site calls it your expected pension (je verwachte pensioen).
• Accrued so far (Tot nu toe opgebouwd): what you'd get if you stopped working today.

Both list each pension's “gross per year” (bruto per jaar) under the age it starts. The age rows add up: the row “From 68 years” repeats what started at 67 and 3 months, plus what starts at 68. Your AOW is on the same rows, from the SVB, but it isn't part of your pension through work.

The big number at the top of the page is something else: net per month, with the AOW included.

If you stop working early

If you stop working before a pension starts, you stop building it. What it pays is then somewhere between the two tabs: what you've built so far, plus a part of the rest. Roughly, that part is the share of the years until it starts that you keep working, if it builds about evenly each year. Your fund's planner on its own site gives the exact figure.

Why it's shown before tax

Funds show your pension before tax because the tax depends on everything else you get that year. Once you've reached your AOW age, your AOW and every pension are taxed together, at lower rates than while you work, because you no longer pay the AOW premium.

So a net figure from one fund on its own can mislead: its tax is worked out as if that pension were your only income. To plan, add up the amounts before tax and work out the tax on the total.

If your overview is empty

An empty overview is normal if you haven't built a pension through work in the Netherlands yet:

• You moved here recently, or haven't worked for a Dutch employer with a scheme.
• You're self-employed.
• What you're looking for isn't a Dutch pension through work. A lijfrente and pensions from jobs abroad aren't on the site, so check those with your bank, insurer or foreign fund.

If a fund you know you're in is missing, or the site says it can't show a fund's figures, contact that fund.

Starting it early

By law, a pension through work can start at most 10 years before your AOW age: from 57 while the AOW age is 67. Your scheme can set a later earliest age, and many large funds now allow the full 10 years. You don't have to stop working to start it.

An earlier start pays less each year, for life, because the same pension is spread over more years. Your fund's planner on its own site shows how much less, since each fund works it out its own way.

Many schemes also let you take a higher pension first and a lower one later, as long as the lower one is at least 75% of the higher. Some let you start part of it now and the rest later. A pension that starts after your AOW age makes your Pension Bridge longer, because your savings pay until the last pension starts.

The new pension law

Under the new pension law, the Wet toekomst pensioenen (Wtp), every scheme moves to the new rules by 1 January 2028, and many funds already moved on 1 January 2026. Your pension then becomes a personal share of the fund's money, invested for you.

Your statement still shows what you'd get, but the payout goes up or down with the markets, before and after it starts. Some statements show a pessimistic and an optimistic figure too. Plan with the expected figure, and check it again each year. From 1 January 2029, you can also take up to 10% of your pension as one amount when it starts.