• Many employees in The Netherlands accrue pension in a benefit scheme: a scheme in which the amount of the pension is determined in advance with a certain certainty. In recent years, this certainty has been limited: pensions did not always rise in line with inflation and were sometimes even reduced. As a result, the purchasing power of these pensions became less and less. Consequently, confidence in the pension system has crumbled.

• The current system is also insufficient in meeting with the developments in the labour market. People are changing jobs more often and the number of flexworkers and self-employed people without employees (self-employed persons) is increasing.

• The current system means that older employees are more expensive than younger employees because pension premiums for young and older employees differ considerably. Consequently, this makes it less attractive from a cost point of view for employers to hire older people.  

• The new pension will be more transparent and personal. This allows you to better understand how 
  much you have already accrued and how your pension capital is developing.  

In 2013, a number of these factors were already a reason for Shell in the Netherlands to introduce a new pension scheme for new employees. But Shell also decided back then to maintain SSPF’s existing pension scheme for employees who were already employed at the time. With the introduction of the new system, this is no longer possible and employees who currently accrue a pension in the SSPF pension scheme will have to accrue pension in a premium scheme in the future.