Belgium is ending premarital savings from January 2024 after the Federal Government deemed the system financially unsustainable and complaints of discrimination have increased lately.
From the start of next year, people will no longer be able to enter the premarital savings system. The authorities are currently drafting a Ministerial Decree at the request of the health insurance funds. However, as the decree will not affect current contracts, the system will slowly fade out over the next years.
Premarital savings was a kind of savings account with a health insurance fund. From the moment a child turns 14, their parents could set aside an amount (up to a maximum of €48 per year) to save for a marriage. As soon as the child married or legally cohabited, they got that amount repaid, with a high yield – up to 125% today.
For example, those who get married at 30 (and have kept a total of €768 after 16 years of savings) will get €1,728 in return upon marriage, making it an interesting savings product even now.
Discriminating against singles
However, the system has been widely criticised for years, mainly for discriminating against singles: those who are single at 30 get much less interest. In the case of the previous example, it is only nearly €300 less.
The equal opportunities centre Unia already called it a savings system "of the last century," while society has completely changed in the meantime. "Premarital savings mainly served to promote marriage, but that classical form of living together is not even in the majority now," Unia said.
While the system worked for health insurance funds to help them retain members for a longer period of time, it was also costly. The Christian Mutuality already stopped premarital savings in 2010, and while the neutral mutual societies and the socialist mutual societies still offer it, they have rebranded it to 'youth savings.'
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"Premarital savings grew historically from the idea that the father and breadwinner would not go and drink away all the money immediately in the pub," Jürgen Constandt, chair of the Flemish & Neutral Health Insurance Fund, told De Standaard.
"But now you can ask whether this is still a core activity of a health insurance fund. The complaints about possible discrimination also accelerated the discussion," he added. "Additionally, from the sector we also saw that interest rates would no longer be guaranteed in the longer term."
For those who would still like to join at the last minute: to do so, a change of health insurance fund is no longer possible. Only existing clients can still start the premarital savings until the end of the year. After that, it is no longer possible.
