As ministers continue discussions on reforms to Belgium's tax system, there remain a number of professions that benefit from favourable pension allowances, with the Federal Pension Service providing a list of some occupations that enjoy advantageous "pension extras".
Often with historical explanations, these professions nonetheless are coming under the spotlight as elected officials consider tightening up their own pension allowances after revelations about advantageous schemes that see members of parliament receive generous payments after leaving office.
Most pensions are calculated by calculating your accumulated wages and comparing this to the wage ceiling. If this is surpassed, that additional number is deducted from the wage ceiling before the new total is calculated to adjust your previous wages to the current cost of living.
Each year is then divided by 45 – the number of career years before you can legally claim a pension. This result is finally multiplied by 60 to produce your pension income per year.
Pilots and cabin crew
Pilots and cabin crew in civil aviation have long been able to retire earlier than other jobs and until 2012 had a favourable scheme for calculating their pension, VRT reports.
For ordinary employees, the annual salary earned in the pension calculation is normally divided by 45 but for pilots they are divided by 30, thereby producing a higher amount. For cabin crew the years were divided by 34. The wage ceiling on which their pension was calculated was also higher than that of a normal employee.
This scheme was phased out a decade ago but the benefits of those already receiving a pension were untouched. For those born before 1957, (former) pilots and (former) cabin crew can still make use of the calculation in their favour.
Those who were already working as a pilot or cabin crew before 2012 will still be able to use the favourable arrangement for those years.
Miners
Though mining is not the economic powerhouse it once was, Belgian miners were rewarded for their dangerous work with a favourable pension. For those born before 1957 or for those who worked as a miner for at least 20 years before 2012, the pension was worked out based on a career of 30 years instead of 45 years.
Miners who have worked underground for at least 25 years were also entitled to a pension supplement. But with Belgium's last coal mine having closed in 1992, this system is also slowly but surely disappearing in practice.
The Genk C-Mine, now a cultural center. Credit: Belga / Eric Lalmand
Seafarers
The pension for seafarers who sail under the Belgian or Luxembourg flag or who work for a Belgian shipowner is also advantageous. The undeniably challenging job has a pension rate calculated on the basis of a shorter career: 40 instead of 45 years. For those with at least 5,040 sailing days (or 168 months), it was even calculated at 14 years.
But that system was amended by the Di Rupo government to only applies to those born before 1957 or to younger people with years of service at sea before 2012.
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Civil servants
Civil servants already have a completely different pension system to ordinary employees. One significant aspect that sets it apart was the possibility for a career break. In the calculation of the civil servants' pension, this fraction determines when they reach their full pension amount during their career. That amount may never exceed 3/4 of their salary in the last 10 years of their career.
Some civil servants had more advantageous career breaks, for instance those working for the national rail operator SNCB who would reach their pension ceiling more quickly.
The reasons behind the variation in career length has to do with some posts being considered more difficult, more dangerous or unhealthier.
Belgian soldiers on a NATO mission to Romania in 2022. Credit: Belga / Dirk Waem
Importantly, for all years of service after 1 January 2012, career breaks that were more advantageous than 1/48 have now been replaced by the bonus of 1/48.
Journalists
Since 1972, salaried journalists have received a supplementary pension, which had been introduced as a reward for refusing to cooperate with the newspapers that had been requisitioned by the German occupiers during the two World Wars. The bonus can amount to a third of the normal pension for a full career.
It is important to note that the journalist's pension is financed by the media sector itself and does not account for any tax benefits. Employers of professional journalists pay an additional 2% social contribution on the gross salary whilst the journalists themselves pay 1%.
The journalists' pension was also almost abolished in 2011 by the Di Rupo government, but that plan was eventually reversed when it turned out that it would hardly yield anything.
