Legal rules for pension partners: Questions and advice

Questioner

I have a question regarding the legal rules for adding a partner as a pension partner. My partner and I currently live together without a cohabitation contract, but we do not want to be each other's allowance partners (yet). This is because we like to keep our incomes separate and our income also varies (I earn more than he does). I have had a pension running since September 2016, and I was told at the time that I had to report a partner, which I did. Now my partner is on my pension. However, the consequences of this, the fact that we have therefore become each other's allowance partners, were never explained to me. This is causing my partner major financial problems, because he has to repay the full healthcare allowance from 2016. A condition of the pension insurer. to include a partner as a partner in a pension, is that you must live at the same address for at least 6 months without a contract. Is this legally valid? And can I also hold the pension intermediary liable for the fact that I never received information about the fact that he would become my allowance partner by adding him to his pension? After all, if I had not reported that I had a partner, we would never have been in this situation.

Lawyer

Whether you are required to report certain changes in your living situation to the pension fund, including if another person comes to live with you, you can check with the pension fund. However, if someone comes to live with you, the pension fund usually receives automatic notification from the municipality. For the state pension (AOW) you have a duty to report in any case. In fact, if you fail to report within 4 weeks that someone has come to live with you, you run the risk of an administrative fine and you may also have to pay back AOW because you have wrongly received a single AOW. It does not matter whether it concerns a (surcharge) partner, grandchild, other family member or acquaintance. You are always obliged to report it to the implementing body that implements the AOW. As for your company pension, it is best to check what your rights and obligations are if you receive a pension. If you are obliged to report that a person lives with you (regardless of who), then you do not have a choice to report this to the intermediary, because you are obliged to do so. Your intermediary does not have to point out anything to you or inform you further about certain consequences (regardless of whether it would be service-oriented to do so). You can, however, inquire with the Tax Authorities yourself and indicate that your partner should not yet be regarded as an allowance partner for the care allowance. There are different rules for that. If you receive care allowance, information will undoubtedly be available (including on the Tax Authorities' website) about what you can do if you have a partner (and the choice of whether or not to regard them as an allowance partner). Your intermediary is not obliged to inform you about this. The government also assumes (these are not my words) that people take responsibility for investigating what is best financially. An intermediary cannot oversee the financial situation of all clients. An intermediary for insurance and pensions does not need to know, and is not expected to know, which allowances you may or may not have. That is separate from your pension. Furthermore, company pensions can set their own rules and conditions for when you can include a partner in the pension. The fact that it is possible with your company pension after 6 months may have to do with the fact that it must first be checked whether there is actually a sustainable cohabitation.