Many locals receive pensions of less than €1,500 a month

Frank Vandenbroucke, an expert in pensions and former Flemish minister, said the low pension figures spring from ‘incomplete careers’. “There continue to be a lot of women who had very short careers and who consequently have a very small pension,” he told the Flemish financial newspaper De Tijd. “This group is thinning out though.”

Many self-employed workers also receive low pension payments. The figures from the federal pension agency show that two in three self-employed retirees receive monthly net payments of less than €1,500 a month.

Several local political parties such as the s.pa and the Flemish Greens want the next federal government to raise the net minimum state pension to €1,500 a month. The current minimum state pension is €1,266 per month.

But Vandenbroucke said it was impossible to estimate how many locals with low pensions would benefit from such an increase. “That will completely depend on the choices the next government makes,” he explained, adding that a lot of female retirees would still receive payments of less than €1,500 a month, even after the proposed reform because they did not work full careers, or 45 years.

“Their pension isn’t based on the minimum pension, but on the minimum annual entitlement, which applies to equivalent periods of inactivity,” he said. “The question is what the next government will do – increase only the minimum pension or also increase the minimum annual entitlement?”

The figures from the Federal Pension Service revealed that in total 1,2 million locals – or about half the country’s retired population – receive state pensions of less than €1,500 a month.

Photo: A protester holds up a sign near Central Station on Equal Pay Day in 2018
© Nils Quintelier / Belga