Participants in the Dutch pension fund PME are well informed about the switch to the country's new pension rules, as a survey by the fund found that 87 per cent are aware of them.

The survey also found that 81 per cent of PME pension holders know the new rules will change their PME pension, up from 78 per cent last year.

In follow-up questions to those aware of both issues, PME asked about elements that will remain unchanged after the switch.

The majority (95 per cent) of those surveyed know that, even under the new rules, PME will continue to invest for the best possible pension, and this figure has remained unchanged since last year.

The survey also found that 86 per cent of pensioners are aware that the amount of their pension may change once a year, up from 81 per cent in 2025.

Despite high awareness levels of upcoming changes, the picture is mixed when looking at individuals’ understanding of the changes.

More than nine in 10 (92 per cent) of those surveyed are aware they will soon have a pension pot that can rise or fall depending, amongst other things, on investments.

Seven in 10 (70 per cent) of respondents are aware that measures will be implemented to protect pensioners from the risk of pension decreases, reflecting an increase from 65 per cent in 2025.

Meanwhile, over 60 per cent of people accruing a pension with PME are aware that some employees are eligible for compensation, a significant increase compared to the 36 per cent who were aware of this in 2025.

The survey also investigated how the transition is perceived among PME members and found that people are mainly neutral, with 50 per cent of people saying so in 2026, compared to 54 per cent in 2025.

However, the proportion of people who view the transition positively or very positively has increased from 17 per cent in 2025 to 24 per cent in 2026, while the proportion who view it negatively or very negatively has decreased by 10 per cent from 33 per cent in 2025 to 23 per cent in 2026.

Finally, the survey asked how confident PME pension holders were that PME would carefully transfer the current pension scheme to the new rules, with the overall figure on a scale of one to 10 standing at 7.4 in 2026.

This is a rise from 2025, when PME pension holders ranked their confidence at 6.9 on a scale of one to 10.

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