Supplementing your pension

On top of your statutory pension (first pension pillar), you may also be entitled to:

• a supplementary pension or group insurance (second pension pillar);
• an individual pension plan or contributions to a pension fund (third pension pillar).

In certain cases, you can pay voluntary contributions to raise the amount of your statutory retirement pension:

• you can buy off study periods in three pension schemes (employee, civil servant or self-employed worker).
• as a civil servant, you can in certain cases also regularize periods of career interruption. This is not possible for employees.
• if your employer did not pay pension contributions.
  
  

Supplementary pension or group insurance (second pension pillar)

You are an employee or a contractual civil servant? If so, your employer may be building up a supplementary pension for you, which you can withdraw when you retire. Self-employed workers can build up a supplementary pension themselves.

The age at which you can receive the capital or annuity, is stated in the regulations of the group insurance or life insurance contract. This age may not be under 60.

In some cases, a survivorship annuity is also built up. Upon your decease, the annuity is awarded to your entitled party.

An individual pension plan or contributions to a pension fund (third pension pillar)

You can build up a personal additional pension by annually depositing a certain amount of money with a financial institution.

Two types of contributions to a pension fund exist:

• contributions to a pension fund with an insurance institution

  In this case, you know the minimum guaranteed annual return. Some insurers also offer the opportunity to share in the profits that depend on your insurer's results;
  
  

• the pension savings account (a pension savings fund, for example) with a bank

  In this case, you do not have a minimum guaranteed annual return. The pension savings fund is based on a bond. The return depends on the evolution of the stock market. The balance is fixed annually.
  
  

You are entitled to tax abatement on the basis of the paid sum on the condition that:

• you are a subject of a member state of the EEA, and you are 18 or over and under 65;
• the savings account or insurance has been opened for a period of at least ten years.

The tax abatement will only be granted for one account or insurance and is not granted after the age of 65.

Find out more about the tax abatement (website FPS Finance).Opens in a new window