Social affairs minister Henk Kamp has told the Financieele Dagblad he will personally guide one pension fund through the process of switching to a new flexible pension contract.

Kamp hopes this pilot project will show other funds how easy it is to change to the new pension system, which gives funds more freedom to increase pensions in line with inflation but will make final benefits less certain.
At the moment, many funds are opposed to the change because they fear legal claims from participants who will no longer have the right to a guaranteed income. Some interest groups have urged the minister to force the change by law, so that funds no longer face the risk of legal claims.
Risk
‘I am not in favour of that,’ Kamp told the paper. ‘I am responsible for the state pension AOW and carry that legal risk. But corporate pension funds are a matter for employers and workers. They have to decide whether or not to take the risk.’
Kamp said he had taken legal advice and considered that funds which switch to the new system will not face legal challenges because it is in the general interest to reform the pension system and make it future-proof.
His ministry is currently working on instructions outlining how to make the change, which he hopes to perfect during a pilot project involving one fund this summer, he said.
‘I think many funds will remain in the current system,’ Willem Noordman of the FNV general workers union told the FD in May. The union has representatives on 45 fund boards. ‘People prefer to know how much they will get, rather than be faced with permanent uncertainty.’
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