Voluntary insurance - What is voluntary insurance?

The AOW old age pension scheme and the Anw survivor benefit scheme are insurance schemes. As a rule, if you live or work in the Netherlands, you will be covered under these schemes.

Your insurance will normally end if you leave the Netherlands

If you start living or working outside the Netherlands, you will normally cease to be covered under the AOW and Anw schemes. This means that:

• you will get a reduced AOW pension when you are 65
• if you die, your partner will get either a reduced Anw survivor benefit, or no Anw benefit at all

• if your children become orphans, they will not get an orphan's benefit

You can avoid these consequences by taking out voluntary insurance.

Voluntary insurance: 3 options

You can take out voluntary insurance for:

• AOW 
• Anw
• both AOW and Anw

New residents of the Netherlands can pay backdated AOW contributions

If you start living or working in the Netherlands after your 15th birthday, you will not have been able to build up a full pension under the AOW scheme. As a result, you will get a reduced AOW pension when you turn 65.

You can, however, still accrue AOW pension rights for the years before you came to the Netherlands by taking out voluntary insurance. You can then pay backdated contributions for the period from your 15th birthday to the date on which you started living or working in the Netherlands. (This option is only available if you have come to live or work in the Netherlands for the first time.)

You cannot take out voluntary Anw insurance for past periods.