Life certificate - enjoying your pension abroad

People who wish to receive their pension abroad have to annually present a life certificate or proof of life to both the Dutch social security bank SVB for their AOW state pension and to their Dutch private pension fund(s) for their occupational pension(s).

Mobile pensioners who enjoy their pensions abroad thus make use of their guaranteed European freedoms to reside, work and settle elsewhere in the European Union. Besides constituting an administrative hurdle for cross-border mobility, this annually recurring obligation constitutes an impediment to exercising these European freedoms. Read more about this in the ITEM-blog Life certificates: a barrier to the free movement of pensioners.

Dissolving bureaucratic and administrative obstacles to cross-border mobility and the exercise of the European freedoms is one of the founding aims of ITEM. Cross-border proof of life can be provided in cooperation with foreign partners, such as social security banks, pension funds and (municipal) administrations (read a good practice good role model). ITEM, in cooperation with its partners, is currently analysing, to what extent the administrative hurdle of presenting life certificates can be removed.