PDN’s financial situation, expressed in terms of the funding level, improved significantly last year. The funding level shows the ratio between the money PDN has readily available and all pension payments now and in the future from all members. By the end of October 2022, the funding level had risen to 134.9%, providing scope to further increase pensions. This is known as ‘indexation’. Several pension funds announced their increases in October and November; the PDN Board will decide on this in December. We understand that you have questions about PDN’s pension increase and when you can expect further information about it.
As mentioned earlier, the decision on the amount of the increase depends on several factors and conditions. The Board has a duty to take care when deciding on an increase and must balance the interests of all members. This means it not only considers the interests of pensioners, but also the interests of everyone who accrues pension at PDN, i.e. future pensioners.
We live in uncertain times, and that uncertainty is affecting everyone. Whether the war in Ukraine, incredibly high energy prices and the resultant peak in inflation, uncertainty in financial markets, and the big rise in interest rates: the Board must also consider all of these issues in its decision-making. If pensions don’t rise in line with increasing prices, pensioners will immediately feel this shortfall in their living expenses. But other members also feel the effects of price increases, although they won’t notice this until later on, when they look to make purchases with their pension benefits after retirement. In a nutshell, the interests of all members all carry equal weight.
As the Board wants to be able to properly balance these interests, the representative DSM Pensioners’ Association (VDP) was given the opportunity to explain their views on increasing pensions.
In June, the Board reached the decision to grant a 1.64% increase on pensions currently being paid and on former employees’ accrued pensions. Employees’ accrued pensions were indexed by 1%. Click here for the news release.
The Board will decide on a further increase of pensions on December 14. Shortly afterwards, we will personally inform all of our members about the percentage increases on accrued and payable pensions. We will do our utmost to inform everyone as soon as possible (via the website) in the week of December 18.
Please visit the PDN website for more information or read the Indexation brochure.