How much does voluntary insurance cost if you live or work in the Netherlands?
If you start living or working in the Netherlands, you will automatically be insured under the AOW old age pension scheme. If it is the first time that you have been insured in the Netherlands, you can take out voluntary insurance for the years before your arrival in the Netherlands. In other words: you can buy back insurance for the years that you were not covered under the AOW scheme. You will be asked to pay a contribution for each of these years.
The contribution is a percentage of your total income for each year, both from the Netherlands and abroad. Every year, the Dutch government determines the contribution rates for that year. There is a minimum and a maximum contribution.
Answer a few questions to find out how much you would have to pay to buy back AOW insurance. If you need help calculating how much you would have to pay, please get in touch with us. We will be happy to help you.
We look at the 50-year period before your AOW pension age. For each year between the start of the 50-year period and the date on which you started living or working in the Netherlands, we calculate how much contribution you would have to pay. The total amount of these contributions is the amount you will have to pay to buy AOW insurance for these years.
You will have to pay at least the minimum contribution for each year, even if you did not have any income in that year. The minimum contribution is based on the contribution that corresponds to the Dutch minimum wage. As from January 1, 2024, this comes to €3,236.
If your income in a given year is above the minimum wage, the contribution will depend on your income for that year. The higher your income, the more contribution you pay. However, you will never be asked to pay more than the maximum contribution.
If you want to buy pension rights for any years before your 21st birthday, you will have to pay the contribution that corresponds to the minimum wage for young workers. As from January 1, 2024, this is between €0 (aged 15) and €2,212 (aged 20).