The new retirement law, the Future Pensions Act, is a reality. In a few years, all workers who have saved or saved for their pension through their employer will have access to a new system. Things will also change for the self-employed who are saving for a pension.

After a long debate in the Senate over the constitutionality of the new retirement law, senators finally got to vote late tonight: 46 voted in favor of the law, and 27 voted against.

Government parties VVD, CDA, D66 and CU and opposition parties PvdA, GroenLinks and SGP voted in favour. Opposition parties SP, PVV, PvdD, 50Plus, Fractions Nanninga, Otten, Frentrop, FvD and OSF voted against.

Minister Carola Schotten (Pension) called it an “important step” as the law has now been adopted after 15 years of debate. “With this law, we are ensuring that our pension remains properly arranged,” she says. According to her, this applies to both people who have already retired and people who are still working.

In the morning, there was a demonstration in front of the Senate, led by the leader of the Socialist Party, Lillian Marinissen.

At home, opponents of the law filed a new last-minute objection. According to three professors, the law should have been voted on by a two-thirds majority. They pointed to a clause in the constitution stating that this should be done when voting on the income of the deputies.

For this reason, Otten’s party introduced a motion of no confidence in Minister Schouten, which had no chance a priori. But he insisted that the constitution did not apply to the retirement law.

Scotten was supported by a majority of the Senate. They believe that the new retirement law does not regulate the level of pensions of former deputies and deputies. They said that should be discussed in the coming months. Only then does the constitution apply. The vote could therefore proceed as planned.

Migrating to the new system will be quite a feat:

According to supporters, the new pension scheme is more suitable for people with flexible jobs and shorter contracts. It is also intended to act more equitably for the younger generations as they do not have to pay for the higher benefits of the older generations. On the other hand, there are more risks and no strong guarantees about the final payment.

The self-employed are allowed to save more tax-free for their pensions in the new system. Pension funds are allowed to experiment with the participation of these self-employed in their employees’ pension funds.

In the coming months, it will be up to the pension funds to inform all pension participants what steps they will take now and how they want to transfer their old pension rights into the new system. That will take years.

Secretary Scotten can imagine a lot of people are worried about the new system. She emphasized that citizens would be well informed of the changes.