Indexation

When prices rise, your money becomes worth less. You can buy slightly less with the same amount of money than in the previous year. This is called ‘inflation’. It is Pensioenfonds Robeco’s ambition to protect your pension against inflation, so that your purchasing power does not decrease. That is why the Robeco Pension Fund tries to give an annual supplement to your accrued pension in the basic scheme (indexation). This means that we try to increase the pension annually based on price developments in the Netherlands (the supplement is at most equal to the 12-month average of the non-cleaned CBS consumer price index all households). This makes the pension prosperity-proof.

We only do this for the pension you accrue in the basic scheme. Even once you have retired, Pensioenfonds Robeco tries to increase your pension. Supplements are granted on 1 February of the year based on the accrued rights on 1 January of the same year. You are not entitled to supplements and it is not certain in the long term whether and to what extent supplements will be granted.

Indexation policy

According to the legal rules, indexation may only be granted if this can be future-proofed. According to the rules, an indexation is future-proof if there is sufficient room to grant it in the future. To calculate future-proofing, the pension fund uses the inflation ingrowth path published by DNB. Above a policy coverage ratio (the average of the monthly coverage ratios of the last 12 months) of 110%, the Robeco Pension Fund can grant a supplement based on market interest rates (the fixed lower limit). The upper limit for granting full price compensation is not fixed and depends on the calculation of future-proofing. When inflation is high, the upper limit is higher than when inflation is low. If the policy coverage ratio is between the lower and upper limit on 1 January, the pension fund can grant a partial supplement. If the policy coverage ratio is below the lower limit, no supplement is granted. If the funding ratio is too low for a prolonged period, the pension fund may even reduce accrued pensions.

Catching up

If the policy coverage ratio is higher than the upper limit, the pension fund may be able to make up some or all of an accrued backlog of indexations by granting an additional supplement. We also call this ‘catch-up indexation’. For all participants, we keep individual records of their arrears since 2009. The pension fund has a policy that catch-up indexation can be granted when the policy coverage ratio at market value is higher than the future-proof upper limit for regular indexation. Catch-up indexation cannot lead to a higher pension than would have been obtained with full indexation. Also, the legal requirement must be met that in any year only 1/5 of the catch-up indexation scope may be used to catch up.

Top-up schemes: no supplements in the accrual phase

Until your retirement date, we do not grant any supplements to the pension capital you accrue in the DC schemes (both gross and net). Have you used this capital on your retirement date to buy a retirement pension and partner’s pension from Pensioenfonds Robeco? If so, these pensions will be eligible for supplements based on price inflation from that time onwards

In recent years, our members’ pensions have been increased as follows:

*Bron: Consumers price index CBS