Het personeel toepassingsgebied van aanvullende pensioenregelingen voor werknemers. Een rechtsvergelijkend en empirisch onderzoek naar de werking van aansluitingsregels

For employees, an occupational pension is an increasingly important part of their income after retirement. The access to such an occupational pension plan is therefore the first and most crucial element or starting point in the accumulation of the additional income. Affiliation rules regulate which employees have access to an occupational pension scheme. These rules directly determine the participation rates. Both at national and European level affiliation rules are debated and examined at length. This PhD provides a comparative legal research of membership of occupational pension schemes for employees in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Belgium. Theoretical and empirical research provides an insight into the systematics of affiliation rules and membership. Three elements define the scope of the analysis i.e. the type of affiliation on behalf of the organiser of the plan, the employer and the the employee. The research results in an own theoretical framework on affiliation and occupational pensions. The theory identifies four mechanisms underlying and shaping the rules of affiliation. These four mechanisms are the enclosing mechanism, the structuring mechanism, the solidarity mechanism and income-determining mechanism. This affiliation theory has been tested empirically. A selection of various pension plans is looked upon with one main focus: the expression of the affiliation rules. This empirical research makes it possible to determine the extent to which the affiliation theory, in addition to a legal foundation, also has an empirical basis. Finally, the theory was applied by studying a hypothetical transformation of the affiliation rules regarding amongst others automatic enrolment.

Publication year:2021

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