You will be getting a new pension scheme on 1 January 2026. What will your pension look like? What is arranged for you and your partner, how does the ‘moving along’ of the pension benefits work, and what happens to the assets? Below, you will find answers to these and many other questions.
The basis for the new pension scheme
Investing together, sharing the risks
You will continue to accrue pension with your colleagues or former colleagues. Your employer and the unions have chosen a solidarity pension scheme. The emphasis in this is on collective investing and shared risk-taking.
From a fixed sum to personal pension assets
In the new scheme, you no longer accrue a fixed sum in pension each year. Instead, you accrue personal pension assets. These personal pension assets move in line with the financial markets. This means that underperformance by investments will cause your personal pension assets to decline, while overperformance causes them to increase. It is expected that pensions will be able to be increased more quickly as a result of this, even though you do lose a measure of certainty in the process.
Retirement date = date of entitlement to state pension
The personal pension assets are converted into a lifetime pension on your retirement date. The retirement date is the same as the date your state pension (AOW) starts unless you choose to take earlier retirement. It is still possible to take earlier retirement, at most 10 years prior to the start date of your state pension.
All pensions are transitioning to the new scheme*
The new scheme applies for all participants in the Algemeen Pensioenfonds KLM from 1 January 2026. This is also the case if you are already receiving a pension payment from us or have accrued pension with us in the past. The pension fund calculates the value of your pension and converts this into your personal pension assets. The pension payments are also converted into a pension payment in accordance with the new pension scheme. We call this ‘pension transfer’. No monetary value is lost in this transfer. We calculate precisely what the value is of your pension payment or the pension you have accrued. This value then transfers to the new scheme.
*If you participate in the net pension scheme, you will receive separate information about it.
We will divide the existing buffer
The current pension system requires that we maintain a substantial financial buffer. For every euro of reserved pension, we need to hold more than 25 cent extra in buffer. This buffer provides security. In the new system, this mandatory buffer is much smaller. The money that is left over on 1 January 2026 will be divided up.
Ground rules for the division of the buffer
The division of the remaining assets roughly looks as follows:
- The pension fund tallies the value of all the pensions and determines the value of the assets.
- Approximately 2 percent extra is needed for the mandatory buffers required by law.
- Filling the solidarity reserve requires 6 percent.
- Approximately 3 percent extra is needed for the compensation of groups detrimentally affected by the new scheme.
This means that a minimum funding ratio of 111 percent is required for the buffers and reserves. Anything that remains will be divided among the personal pension assets and will be used to increase current pension payments.
Compensation for people 36+ accruing pension
In the current scheme, younger and older participants pay the same amount of contribution and they accrue the same amount of pension each year. This is referred to as an ‘average pension contribution system’. The new scheme abolishes the average pension contribution system. The pension fund calculated that in the new pension scheme, employees aged 36 and above experience the least advantage, or even a disadvantage, as a result of this. That is why this group will receive compensation. In practical terms, this is a one-time extra deposit into the personal pension assets.
Reopening the discussion if funding ratio drops sharply
No one can predict the funding ratio on 1 January 2026. Your employer and the trade unions have agreed that they will reopen discussions if the funding ratio drops sharply. They could, for instance, opt to have the new pension scheme take effect later in that case. With a funding ratio of more than 130%, that would not be at issue for the time being, but the pension fund will be keeping a close eye on the funding ratio in the coming months so that action can be taken in time if required.
Pension for your partner remains arranged
As long as you do not change employer, a standard partner’s pension remains provided for your partner in the event of your death. In the new scheme, you will no longer accrue partner’s pension as you do now, but the partner’s pension will be insured. The partner’s pension consists of a standard element and a voluntary one. The standard element insures 24 percent of your salary on which you accrue pension. You can, in addition, voluntarily insure extra partner’s pension of 11 percent of your salary on which you accrue pension. With both insurance components, you therefore arrange a partner’s pension for your partner in case of your death amounting to 35 percent of your salary on which you accrue pension.
Temporary partner’s pension
You can also insure a temporary partner’s pension. This enables you to arrange a partner’s pension that pays out from the time of your death until your partner reaches the age of entitlement to state pension. The conditions for this insurance are the same as for the Surviving Dependants Act (ANW) shortfall pension.
Automatic registration
Had you already arranged the extra insurances for your partner in the current scheme? Then we automatically register you for the extra partner’s pension insurances in the new scheme. The surviving dependant’s pension you accrued in the old pension scheme is still yours.
KLM Health Services
Do you work at KLM Health Services (KHS)? Then you will no longer accrue surviving dependant’s pension in the new scheme. This was always already entirely insured. In the new pension scheme, you can voluntarily insure a partner’s pension of 22.5 percent of the salary on which pension is accrued. It applies for you as well that if you already had this insurance in the current scheme, we will automatically arrange it for you in the new pension scheme.
Insurance of partner’s pension continues
Are you stopping work and not yet accruing pension anywhere else? A new feature is that the insurances for the partner’s pension remain in place for six months at the pension fund’s expense. After that, you can opt to pay the premium yourself or stop these insurances.
Disability pension
If you are prevented from working because of disability, you continue to accrue pension assets without having to contribute for the portion that you are incapacitated for work. You also receive a supplement to your WIA benefit in certain circumstances.
Investing risk decreases as participant ages
As you get older, we ensure that your pension assets are exposed to less risk. We do this by ensuring that the investing risks decrease from the time you turn 53. This is for two reasons: it means your pension assets move less in line with the financial markets and that the estimate of your pension becomes more stable. When you find yourself planning for retirement in the years before collecting pension, it is helpful to know what to expect in terms of payment.
Key changes specifically for anyone already receiving a pension
Your pension will move in line with the financial markets. In practical terms, this means that the pension fund will factor the result of the financial markets into your pension payment once a year. Your pension payment can increase or decrease as a result. Whether your pension increases or decreases depends on, among other things, the return on investments and interest rates.
Preventing fluctuations
The pension may decrease, for example, if investments underperform in a given year. To limit reductions, we form a collective reserve. We call this a solidarity reserve and use it to supplement current pensions in certain circumstances if investments underperform. The solidarity reserve can be used to supplement the pension payment up to a maximum of half of inflation.
Lifelong pension
What does not change, is the fact that you will continue to receive a pension payment as long as you live. The choices you have made will also remain in place on your retirement date. Did you provide for a partner’s pension for your partner in the event of your death, for instance? Then this will be provided for in the new pension scheme as well. Like your pension, however, the partner’s pension will also move in line with the financial markets.
