The Pension Law changes as of January 1, 2015, therefore the pension accrual for future years goes down.

The accrued pensions will remain unchanged, only the accrual for future years will be lower and a maximum pensionable salary of €100,000 has been introduced.

Impact on the Mars Pension and Retirement Planner

To calculate how this will affect your pension, you can use the pension planner. The adjustments to the pension planner with the 2015 formulas for participants in the final pay plan are expected at the end of October. The accrual for the coming years will go from 1.9% to 1.657%. The planner then takes into account the maximum salary.

Please note: At the moment, the planner calculates with the provisions of the current plan and the results for a commencement date after 1 January 2015 are therefore higher than they will actually be. After adjustment, the planner will show the outcomes for dates after 1 January 2015 in accordance with the changes of 1 January 2015.

Decisions have yet to be made regarding the effect of the legislative amendment on the ARP/ASP plan. As soon as there is more clarity, we will inform you about this and about the expected adjustment of the pension planner.

Uniform Pension Statement

You have received (or will receive one of these days) a UPO (Uniform Pension Overview). This shows the accrued pension entitlements as of January 1, 2014 according to the rules as of January 1, 2014. This overview also shows amounts based on continuous accrual. These are based on the provision in the current regulations; this is determined by law. Due to the changes as of 1 January 2015, the final amounts will be lower than shown in the overview for 2014.