About 240,000 retirees from the metal and technology sectors will receive an additional pension of 3.2%. The PMT Fund announced on Tuesday that pensions will also increase for about 1 million workers.
The increase will not take effect on January 1, but only in the second quarter of next year. This is the third increase in a year and a half in PMT. In October last year, pensions increased by 1.3 per cent, followed by a 4.2 per cent increase three months later.
To determine the new increase, PMT looked at inflation between July 2022 and July of this year. According to the CBS statistics agency, prices rose by an average of 3.26 percent during that period.
In practice, the increase means that someone who receives a monthly pension of €700 from PMT, for example, will soon receive an additional €22 per month.
Companies from the metals and technology sectors are members of the fund. This often concerns small businesses, such as garages, bicycle repair shops and gas stations.
Pension funds have not increased for years
Many pension funds have not increased pensions for years. Their financial situation did not allow this. This frightened retirees in particular, who saw their expenses rise, but their income did not increase.
Last year and early this year, many pensions were increased again for the first time in a long time. In many cases there will be a new increase next year. For example, the PFZW Healthcare Fund and the ABP Civil Servants Fund decided on an increase, which will also take effect immediately on January 1. In PMT this only happens after the quarter.
Another large fund, bpfBOUW, is not increasing its pensions. Inflation is seen between September last year and the same month this year. According to Statistics Netherlands, average prices did not increase during that period.
