Employees who change jobs and consequently join a different pension fund have a statutory right to transfer their pension savings. In that case, individual value transfer the transfer of pension rights takes place, which means that the old pension fund pays a lump sum equal to the value of the entitlements accrued there to the new pension fund. If this lump sum is too low to purchase the entitlements from the new pension fund, the pension fund will pass on the bill for the difference to the employer. The law stipulates that the employer is obliged to settle this bill. The employee must not suffer any disadvantage as a result of the value transfer.
Until 1 January 2015, an employee had to submit a request for the transfer of their pension benefits within six months of starting their new job. With the removal of this time limit, the number of requests for pension value transfers has risen sharply. The logical consequence is that a large number of employers are now facing substantial claims from pension funds for additional contributions. And given the current economic situation, the sums involved are often very substantial.
The intention is to review the pension value transfer system. Until this has been implemented, State Secretary Klijnsma of Social Affairs has stipulated – in order to prevent companies from running into financial difficulties – that pension value transfers will not take place if the employer is required to make an additional payment of more than €15,000. The employee will then remain in the old pension scheme, but may still request a pension value transfer at a later date, once the additional payment amounts to less than €15,000.