social security - FOD Sociale Zekerheid

the social scheme for self-employed persons and showing the relation between the obtainedpension contribution rate and the pension contribution rate in the salaried workers' scheme.Just like for salaried persons in the private sector, the self-employed persons' pension is alsodetermined on the basis of their family situation.The pensions of civil servants are not calculated in the same way. Instead of all the grosssalaries earned during the entire career, only the average non-indexed salary of the last fiveyears is taken into account (except for the military, for whom this is the last earned salary).This reference salary is multiplied by the number of credited years of service divided by 60. Forcertain categories of personnel (e.g. teachers, magistrates, …), the fraction 1/60 is replacedby another fraction.Certain periods of absence are only taken into account up to a certain percentage of the actuallyperformed services. Moreover, certain periods of career interruption can only be taken intoaccount against payment of the necessary contributions.If the possession of a diploma (for post-secondary studies) was a condition for recruitment orfor a later promotion, these study years are taken into account for the calculation of the pension(no contributions have to be paid).The pensions in the public sector are limited to 2 types of maximum amounts: the relativemaximum that equals ¾ of the reference salary on the basis of which the pension was calculatedand the absolute maximum that equals a fixed maximum gross amount of 6,040.06 EURper month (amount on 1 July 2011).A pension supplement is granted to the civil servants who have continued their career afterthe age of 60. This supplement increases per month of actual service after the age of 60. Forpensions that started as from 1 January 2007 with actual services after 31 December 2005,the age supplement can exceed the relative maximum for up to 9/10 of the reference salary.It is not always allowed to accumulate a public-sector retirement pension with otherallowances or benefits.A retirement pension may e.g. be accumulated with a benefit for primary incapacity for work,an invalidity benefit or an unemployment benefit. This does not change the amount of theretirement pension, but it may influence the amount of the replacement income.A pension bonus is also granted to salaried persons and self-employed persons who continuetheir professional activity after the age of 62 or after a professional career of at least 44 years.To conclude, note that every system holds rules to avoid “small pensions” for people whoreceived a low salary during their career. For the pensions of salaried persons, the legislationprovides a minimal pension entitlement per career year, as long as the retired person has acareer of at least 15 years and every year of employment equals at least a third of a full-timeposition. Minimal pension entitlement also applies to those who have worked during a periodequalling to at least two thirds of a full career.38