Approximately 70,000 Danish people are expected to reach state pension age in 2023, around twice as many as the annual number of new state pensioners than the previous four years, according to Sampension.

This is due to the face that the state pension age did not increase in Denmark at the turn of the year, which had otherwise been the case every year since 2019.

Sampension noted that Danes have increasingly large and more complex savings when they retire and there can be financial gains made by planning their payments.

An example of this is possibility of extending the instalment pension from 10 years to 20 years after retirement.

Calculations from Sampension found that pensioners can receive an additional DKK 400,000 in retirement by extending the instalment pension payments from 10 years to 20 years.

"The Danes generally have larger and larger pension savings, and at the same time, many also have savings in free funds and housing on the side,” commented Sampension head of market and customer advice, Anne-Louise Lindkvist.

“And when the money is to be used in retirement, it pays to spend a little time planning the payments.

“Because if the money is paid out in the right order, you can secure significantly more for life as a pensioner - and that is, of course, without having to save more.”

These gains arise due to the fact that a pensioners payments are not hit as hard by either income tax and return tax or offsets in public benefits.

However, how to optimally arrange these finances as a pensioner is not straightforward, Lindkvist noted.

“Because the rules in this area are complex, and at the same time Danes' savings increasingly consist of different parts,” she continued.

“That is why it is a good idea to seek advice, and of course this applies primarily to the extra large group of Danes who are on their way to retirement this year."

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