The number of Belgians retiring before the age of 65 is increasing, according to a study by employment consultancy Acerta.
While the age of retirement will rise in Belgium to 66 in 2025 and 67 in 2030, the findings from Acerta suggest that people are retiring earlier. The findings are from a database of 290,000 employees and 200,000 self-employed.
According to Acerta, 36.7% in 2020 and 37.48% in 2020 of people who retired were under 65. In 2019, this amount was only at 32.89%, an increase of 11.58% (3.81 points) between 2019 and 2020, with 2.14% (2 points) between 2020 and 2021.
Employment differences
There is a slight difference between the retiring age of blue-collar and white-collar workers. The average age of retirement fell from 63.2 years in 2019 to 62.82 for blue-collar workers, while it dropped from 64.01 to 63.8 years for white-collar workers.
For the self-employed, 54.83% of people ended their careers under the age of 65. From 2021, the number dipped to 51.39%.
The difference can partly be explained in the way that Acerta distinguishes between employees, with people working as an employee and people alternating between self-employment and being an employee.
However, FPS Pension said that only 19.97% of self-employed in 2019 and 19.82% retired in 2020, given that the average pension for the self-employed is €1,500 for a single person and €1,900 for a household.
