The introduction of a law change in the Netherlands that would allow retirees to withdraw a lump sum from their pension has been delayed to 1 July 2024 at the earliest.

Earlier this year, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions, Carola Schouten, stated that a delayed introduction date for pension lump sums of 1 January 2024 was feasible.

However, she has now written a letter to the House of Representatives and the Senate stating that this is no longer feasible, and revised the date to 1 July 2024 at the earliest.

Pension providers indicated to the minister that they would need at least six to nine months after parliamentary approval to properly inform their members and to implement the change.

The new pension option, upon introduction, will allow savers in the Netherlands to withdraw a maximum of 10 per cent of their accrued retirement pension on their retirement date.

In the letter, Schouten said that it was important that participants were well informed about the right the choose to withdraw a pension lump sum.

“First of all, this requires good information from pension providers and sufficient time for a participant to make an informed choice,” she wrote.

“It is important that pension providers inform participants in good time about the right of choice.”

Schouten added that there needed to be a balance between allowing sufficient time for pension administrators to implement the changes and preventing unnecessary delays to the introduction of the lump sum.

Therefore, the lump sum option will not come into effect before 1 July 2024 and will depend on the progress of the parliamentary process.

Commenting on the delay, the Dutch Pension Federation said it was pleased with the letter and expressed its hope that the parliamentary discussion of the bill would not take too long.

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