Achmea has called the 1 January 2022 target date for the implementation of new Dutch pension legislation “super ambitious” following the resignation of the country’s government.

General elections are scheduled for 17 March after Mark Rutte’s government tendered its resignation amidst a scandal concerning the false accusations of fraud against as many as 20,000 Dutch families by the nation’s tax authority.

Following the scandal, the Prime Minister’s cabinet will stay on in a caretaker capacity until the formation of a new coalition.

Rutte commented: “The government was not up to standard throughout this whole affair. Mistakes were made at every level of the state, with the result that terrible injustice was done to thousands of parents.”

Currently, the pension agreement bill is under consultation and set to arrive before the cabinet in June 2021, although Achmea pointed out that it is possible that a newly formed cabinet may want to make changes.

The reforms, which are the product of a decade of negotiations, would see each of the country's defined benefit schemes become a defined contribution-like collective scheme.

Despite the possibility of delays, the pensions services provider urged pension professionals to use the consultation period to learn about the bill with their social partners and professional associations so they could better estimate the consequences for their own schemes.

Achmea recommended a series of questions for consideration, such as examining how the new contracts could relate to the current benefit scheme, what risk attitude a scheme’s participants have and what the changes might mean for member communication.

The company also noted that there were elements of the pensions overhaul that remained with the government, such as retirement lump sums and procedure in the case of divorce.

A proposal for the former issue was deemed to be too complex, sending the government back to the drawing board with a target date for implementation on 1 January 2023, whilst the latter issue is still targeted for implementation on 1 January 2022, although Achmea stressed that this is only feasible if the house deals with it "quickly".

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