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Official information and services: belgium.be Belgian Federal Public Services

Biennial adaptation of the civil service pensions

Your pension or other benefits that are paid by the Pensions Service can also change because of:
  • a pension reform;
  • an indexation;
  • an annual adaptation in January;
  • a welfare adjustment (for employee and self-employed worker pensions only).

With every change:

  • we will adapt our website and mypension.be;
  • we automatically apply this new legislation to your future pension.

If you are entitled to a raise or change, we will automatically take the necessary steps.

You do not have to do anything!

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What does the biennial adaptation of the civil service pensions consist of?

The civil service retirement and survivor's pensions keep pace with the evolution of the wages of the active civil servants. We call this adaptation of the pension amount the biennial adaptation of the civil service pensions to the wages of the active civil servants.

The adaptation of the pension amounts to the wages of the active staff members happens on the basis of baskets. Every retirement or survivor's pension in the scheme for civil servants is connected to a certain basket.

All pensions of the same basket are automatically raised by a certain percentage after a reference period of 2 years. We determine this percentage per basket on the basis of the increase of:

  • the salary scales maximums;
  • certain wage supplements;
  • the holiday allowance;
  • the year-end bonus.

Which are the different baskets?

At the moment, 16 biennial adaptation baskets exist:

  • Federal Government (including the former State Police)
  • Brussels-Capital Region, COCOM, French Community Commission
  • Flemish Community and the Flemish Community Commission (with the exception of education)
  • Walloon Region
  • French Community (with the exception of education)
  • German-speaking Community, including education and the local authorities
  • Flemish Community education
  • French Community education
  • Local authorities of the Flemish Region
  • Local authorities of the Walloon Region
  • Local authorities of the Brussels-Capital Region
  • Armed forces
  • Integrated police
  • Autonomous state enterprises (Proximus, bpost, Skeyes)
  • Belgian railways (Infrabel, NMBS and HR Rail)
  • The rescue areas (from 1 January 2015)
  • The government institutions and scientific institutions are a part of the basket their government depends upon

Community education comprises:

  • the public school system;
  • the official and free subsidized education.

In what way are the pensions linked to a biennial adaptation basket?

The retirement pensions are linked to the basket that corresponds to the sector in which the staff member ended his career.

The survivor's pensions are linked to the basket that corresponds to the sector in which the deceased civil servant ended his career.

In case of doubt, the federal government basket is the reference basket.

What are the baskets composed of?

Every basket is composed of the retirement pensions and the deferred retirement pensions:

  • managed by the Federal Pensions Service;
  • at the expense of the consolidated pension fund (i.e. staff members of the City of Antwerp, Ghent and Liège).

We compose every biennial adaptation basket on the basis of the retirement pensions that took effect within 4 years preceding the reference period, and whose holder ended his career in the concerned sector within those 4 years. The retirement pensions of the staff members who do not, or not exclusively, belong to one sector, are taken into account for the composition of the biennial adaptation basket of the federal government.

We do not take the survivor's pensions into account for the composition of a basket. 

Example:

The total renumeration

At the start of every reference period, we determine a total renumeration for every basket. This total renumeration is equal to the sum of the maximum remunerations of all retirement pensions that were linked to the basket.

The maximum renumeration equals the sum of:

  • the maximum of the salary scale linked to the last grade of the holder of the retirement pension;
  • and
  • the maximum of the wage supplements that were really awarded in the last month of the period that is taken into account for determining the reference pay that serves as the basis for the calculation of the pension.

This concerns in particular:

  • the salary scales and wage supplements that are of application on 31 December of the year that precedes the reference period.
  • the wage supplements that really were awarded during the last month of the period that was taken into account for determining the reference pay. This concerns:
    • the wage supplements that were taken into account for the calculation of the pension;
    • the holiday allowance and end-of-year allowance that were calculated on the basis of the maximum of the salary scale that is linked to the last grade of the holder of the retirement pension;
    • the wage supplements that were allocated by the King by means of a decree that was decided on after deliberation in the Council of Ministers (at the moment, the King has not yet allocated any).

How much is your biennial adaptation percentage?

The biennial adaptation percentage is equal to:

  • the percentage of the increase in the total renumeration that is determined at the end of the reference period;

    compared to

  • the total renumeration that is determined on 31 December of the year preceding the reference period.

We fix this percentage to the fourth decimal place.

From 1 January 2025, the total cost of the biennial adaptation for the 16 baskets is annually limited to 0,30 % of the global expenses for the public sector retirement and survivor's pensions or to 0,60 % for every biennial adaptation period. Find out how this percentage is calculated below.

How is the biennial adaptation percentage calculated?

If the total cost of the biennial adaptation exceeds 0,60 %, a limitation is applied to every basket that has a percentage of over 0,60 %.

From 1 January 2025, the total cost of the biennial adaptation is limited for the 16 baskets as this cost across the biennial adaptation period exceeds 0,60 % of the global pension expenses. This biennial adaptation cost may annually not exceed 0,30 % of the global cost of the public sector retirement and survivor's pensions for the last year of the reference period and therefore may not exceed 0,60 % of this pension cost for the full biennial adaptation period.

If the total cost of the biennial adaptation for the 16 baskets exceeds 0,60 %, a limitation is applied to every basket that has a percentage of over 0,60 %:

  • the biennial adaptation cost will be limited for all of these baskets. The reduction is made proportionally, depending on the share of the basket in the exceeding of the maximum total biennial adaptation cost.
  • to carry out this reduction of the biennial adaptation on the individual pensions within every basket that exceeds the limit, a solidarity mechanism was provided:
    • the lowest pensions of the basket that do not exceed a certain limit, receive the full biennial adaptation percentage.
    • the other pensions of the basket of which the monthly gross amount exceeds the limit receive the biennial adaptation for the portion of the pension that falls below the limit. Because of this, for these last pensions, the increase due to the biennial adaptation will from now on take the form of a lump sum instead of the initial biennial adaptation percentage.

Transitional measure: pensions in the baskets for which wage agreements were concluded on 10 July 2023 at the latest that led to wage increases in the 2023 – 2024 period, still receive their full biennial adaptation percentage before the biennial adaptation of 1 January 2025, without limitation.

To determine the biennial adaptation percentage on 1 January 2025, we add up the following percentages per basket, if this applies:

  • the biennial adaptation percentage the transitional measure applies to
  • the biennial adaptation percentage the transitional measure does not apply to

These added up percentages make up the biennial adaptation percentage that is applied on 1 January 2025.

In this table, you will find the biennial adaptation percentage per basket:

Table biennial adaptation percentage per basket and year
Basket 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023 2025
Federal Government including the former State Police 1,0895 0,7618 0,0102 0,0201 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000
Brussels-Capital Region 1,3391 1,0352 0,0133 0,0916 0,0000 4,3419 5,0000 0,2626 0,7877
Flemish Community and the Flemish Community Commission with the exception of education 0,1045 1,3520 0,0055 0,3487 0,0031 0,0000 0,2963 0,0000 0,9459
Walloon Region 0,4789 0,0007 0,2321 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 0,1350 0,4914 0,0388
French Community with the exception of education 0,3753 1,1908 0,6691 0,3767 0,3755 1,3807 1,9425 0,6793 0,0155
German-speaking Community, including education 0,0000 0,2980 0,0867 1,1799 0,7664 0,9574 0,9117 1,3007 1,1290
Flemish Community education 0,0876 0,3619 0,3540 0,7281 0,3527 0,6696 0,1789 3,7007 0,4373
French Community education 0,7942 1,0896 2,3606 0,0000 0,0532 0,0000 0,2337 0,0000 0,0000
Local authorities Flemish Region 0,7159 0,3864 0,4080 0,3281 0,0037 0,0277 0,0042 0,8758 0,0108
Local authorities Walloon Region 0,0166 0,2491 0,1936 0,5488 0,0737 0,0491 0,0800 0,1071 0,0439
Local authorities Brussels-Capital Region 0,9227 0,6594 0,0141 0,0078 0,041 0,0431 0,0000 1,0013 2,0758
Armed forces 0,7598 0,4905 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 0,0231 0,0000 0,0000 9,4538
Integrated police 0,689 0,5039 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 1,7998 0,0142 2,5344
Autonomous state enterprises (Proximus, bpost, Skeyes) 0,3294 0,3062 0,1128 0,5144 0,3002 0,4743 0,0155 0,0778 0,0000
Infrabel, NMBS, HR Rail 0,9374 1,7274 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000
Rescue areas / / / / / / 0,0000 0,0164 0,0000

 

Particulars for the municipalities and provinces

The retirement and survivor's pensions of the staff members of the municipalities and provinces that have their own pension scheme do not fall within the range of application of the law of 9 July 1969.

However, article 15 of the law of 9 July 1969 provides for these municipalities and provinces to be obliged to apply a biennial adaptation percentage that is at least equal to the percentage that is applied to the local authorities of the Region they depend upon on the basis of the current law.

The local mandataries do not fall within the range of application of the abovementioned law of 9 July 1969.

Frequently asked questions

That is possible. If the wages of the active civil servants tied to a certain basket did not increase, the pensions tied to the same basket also do not increase.

That depends on the wages of the active civil servants in the federal government basket. If their wages do not increase by 0,3 %, the pensions will not increase by 0,3 % either.

The biennial adaptation is not discontinued, but from 2025 it is limited to an annual raise of 0,3 % at most across all baskets

The adaptation is biennial. Biennial adaptations are planned in 2025, 2027, …

Your pension keeps pace with the wages of the active civil servants from a particular basket. Are the wages of these civil servants increased? Then upon the following biennial adaptation, your pension will also increase.
However, the biennial adaptation is limited to 0,3 % a year across all baskets.

Yes, the reformed biennial adaptation is applied to all (future) civil service pensions.

The baskets for which wage agreements have been concluded before 11 July 2023 that led to wage increases in the 2023-2024 period, fall under the transitional measure and will still receive their full biennial adaptation percentage for the biennial adaptation of 2025. This increase due to the biennial adaptation will be paid in full in 2025 as this increase is not taken into account for the calculation of the total biennial adaptation cost across all baskets.

To determine the biennial adaptation percentage on 1 January 2025, we add up the following percentages per basket, if this applies:

  • the biennial adaptation percentage the transitional measure applies to;
  • the biennial adaptation percentage the transitional measure does not apply to.

You can.

If the biennial adaptation percentage of your basket exceeds 0,3 %, but the total biennial adaptation cost of all baskets remains below 0.3% a year, the higher biennial adaptation percentage will be awarded for your pension.