Pension Division in Divorce Act 2022 postponed

The Pension Division in the Event of Divorce Act 2022 will take effect later than planned. The effective date has been postponed from January 1, 2022, to July 1, 2022. This is a result of the fall of the government.

A legislative consultation on the bill was originally scheduled for January 25th of this year in the House of Representatives, but this was removed from the agenda due to the fall of the government. Because it is desirable for divorcing parties and professionals managing a divorce to know well in advance what consequences the divorce will have for their pensions, Minister Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs and Employment has decided to postpone the law's entry into force by six months. He wrote this in a letter (pdf, 72 kB) to the House of Representatives.

Pension entitlement
Thanks to the bill, married couples and registered partners will have their own pension entitlement after divorce, with respect to the pension provider. This means that ex-partners will no longer be dependent on each other. The new law will not apply to couples who live together but are not married or registered partners. The proposal by the Association of Mediators in the Notary (VMN) and the Royal Dutch Notarial Association (KNB) to treat people with a notarial cohabitation agreement, containing agreements on mutual care obligations, the same as people in a marriage or registered partnership, was not adopted.