How do you accrue pension?

There are 3 ways in which you accrue pension:
A. State retirement pension (AOW): you will receive this pension from the government if you live or work in the Netherlands. You can read more about AOW at SVB.nl.
B. Pension at APF Pension Fund: You accrue this pension through your employer. This Pensioen 1-2-3 is also about this pension.
C. Income resources that you arrange yourself. Examples: an annuity or savings in a blocked account with your bank (‘banksparen’).

In 2024, you accrue your pension through the basic pension scheme (a career average pension scheme) up to a salary of € 77.890.- (AkzoNobel) or € 79.947.- (Nouryon, Nobian and Salt). Every year, you accrue a portion of your final pension. When you retire, we add up all the pension portions. The amount of your final pension is based on your average salary during your career at your employer.

If your fixed salary is higher than the fiscal salary limit (€ 77.890.- for AkzoNobel and € 79.947.- for Nouryon, Nobian or Salt in 2024), you will participate in the top-up pension scheme.

The top-up pension scheme is a defined contribution scheme. In this pension scheme contributions are deposited and invested, which results in investment returns. Together, the deposited contributions and the investment returns make up your pension capital (in the defined contribution scheme). When you retire you will use the pension capital to purchase a retirement pension and a partner’s pension.

In the career average pension scheme you accrue pension on your pension basis, which is your pensionable salary minus the deductible.

In the defined contribution scheme, contributions are invested over a part of your salary. In order to determine over which part you receive a contribution, we first deduct the fiscal salary limit (€ 77.890.- for AkzoNobel and € 79.947.- for Nouryon, Nobian or Salt in 2024) from you annual salary (maximized at € 137.800.- annually in 2024). The amount remaining is referred to as contribution base and is divided by 12. After that we determine the (monthly) contribution on the basis of a contribution sliding scale. Go to layer 2 for more details.

In the career average pension scheme you and your employer jointly pay the costs of your pension. Your employer withholds your contribution from your gross salary. Your exact contribution is specified on your salary slip.

For the defined contribution scheme the employer pays the contributions to you as participant. At least 60% of these contributions should be deposited into the defined contribution scheme. The part of the contribution that is not deposited into the defined contribution scheme (maximum of 40%) is added to your gross salary, after deduction of social security contributions. You have to arrange this with your employer.