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

Is my degree taken into account for the calculation of my pension amount?

Under certain conditions, your degree is partially or completely taken into account for your pension as an established civil servant.

Check mypension.be to find out if your degree is taken into account for your pension amount!

Your degree can be taken into account for the calculation of your pension amount (diploma indemnification) if it was required for:

  • the position in which you were appointed;
    or
  • a later appointment.

Your degree is taken into account for free (you do not have to buy off or regularise this period):

completely, if:

  • you could retire early on 01/12/2018 at the latest (irrespective of when you do actually retire);
  • you qualified on 01/12/2017 to remain full-time or part-time attached to the civil service on a non-active basis prior to your retirement.

partially, if:

  • your pension starts on or after 01/12/2018;
    and
  • you at the latest on 01/12/2017:
    • have been appointed or hold an equivalent position (e.g. student on work placement, trainee police officer);
    • have been appointed as a judicial trainee;
    • have been recruited as a temporarily tenured staff member in education.

The formula for the partial diploma indemnification is:

formula for the partial diploma indemnification

We thus multiply your study duration (in months) with the duration of your admissible career for the acquired advancement condition on 1 December 2017. If you have a priority career fraction, we do not take the following into account:

  • the diploma indemnification;
    and
  • the increase coefficients.

We then divide this result by 540 months, which corresponds to a full career of 45 years. This result is rounded down to full months.

We calculate the partial indemnification on the basis of the career as we know it (and as you can consult it at mypension.be).

Example:

On 1 December 2017, Paul proves a career of 15 years (180 months) as a civil servant and a career of 5 years (60 months) as an employee.

His position as a civil servant requires a degree of 4 years (48 months).

In this case, the diploma indemnification is free for: 48 months X (180+60)/540 or 21,33 months, rounded down to 21 months.

Paul may want to regularise the remaining 27 months.

Remarks:

  • We can only once take your diploma indemnification into account.

  • The period of the indemnification and of the actual performances after the age of 19 that is taken into account for the calculation of the pension may not exceed the period between the date on which you reached the age of 19 (18 in the case of education!) and the date of your retirement.

  • The period of your diploma indemnification may not coincide with periods of admissible services.

  • Your diploma indemnification may be reduced if you:
    • do not have the 20 admissible years that would have entitled you to a retirement pension;
    • have incomplete years of service.

Study periods that are not taken into account for free can, under certain conditions, be bought off or regularized.

How much does buying off my study years yield?