EU project for the pilot phase of a European Tracking Service on Pensions started

A consortium of experienced European pension stakeholders has taken up the challenge to carry out a European Commission action to develop the Pilot stage of a European Tracking Service on Pensions (ETS).

The European Commission has called for the ‘development of web-based cross-border pension tracking services that help mobile workers follow their pension rights accrued in different Member States and pension schemes in the course of their career’.

The 2.1 million euro project is funded both by the European Commission (1.7 million euro) and by the consortium partners. The project will last three years and is a continuation of the earlier TTYPE (Track and Trace Your Pension in Europe) initiative. The TTYPE project ran from June 2013 to June 2016 and delivered the possible design, recommendations and a business plan for a European pension tracking service.

Starting on 1 January 2019, the consortium will build the pilot stage of the European Tracking Service on Pensions under the already existing brand www.FindyourPension.eu, a website which has been supporting mobile researchers in dealing with their various different pension claims since 2011.

In the first phase the ETS (Pilot) will offer general information on pension landscapes in a wide range of European countries and help mobile workers in finding their pension providers in at least five Member States. Main goal of the service is to provide cross border and other professionally mobile workers an insight in their personal pension situation. Therefore, interfaces and the technical basis to show accrued pension entitlements via the ETS will be created in a ‘Proof of Concept’ being part of the project.

Following a step by step approach, the goal is to roll out the service and connect as many National Tracking Services and pension providers to the platform as possible after the project phase.

Consortium members are:

• National Pension Tracking Facilities
  -Sigedis (Belgium)
  -Minpension.se (Sweden)
• Pension Providers/Institutions
  -APG (the Netherlands)
  -Federal Pensions Service (Belgium)
  -The Swedish Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten) (Sweden)
  -PGGM (the Netherlands)
  -Versorgungsanstalt des Bundes und der Länder (VBL, Germany)
• Association
  -European Association of Paritarian Institutions (AEIP)

About Sigedis
Sigedis is a public non-profit association that was established in 2006 by social security institutions. Our organisation fulfills a unique role as one-stop-data-source and offers end-to-end solutions for everyone with data needs in terms of persons identification, career, and pension.
Sigedis offers comprehensive, reliable and high-quality data that every individual end-user or professional user can easily use, ranging from structured data exchange and automated response algorithms to online citizen applications such as mycareer.be and mypension.be.
We also offer technical support to the social security network. Thanks to our expertise in data-related services, we help our partner institutions provide better services and effectively communicate information to citizens. In this way Sigedis is a driving force behind the development of e-government solutions that are among the most efficient and transparent in Europe.

About APG Groep NV
APG is the largest pension delivery organization in the Netherlands; its approximately 3,000 employees provide executive consultancy, asset management, pension administration, pension communication and employer services. APG performs these services on behalf of (pension) funds and employers in the sectors of education, government, construction, cleaning and window cleaning, housing associations, energy and utility companies, sheltered employment organizations, and medical specialists. APG manages approximately €485 billion (August 2018) in pension assets for the pension funds in these sectors. APG works for approximately 25,000 employers, providing the pension for one in five families in the Netherlands (about 4.5 million participants). APG has offices in Heerlen, Amsterdam, Brussels, New York and Hong Kong. www.apg.nl

About Federal Pensions Service
The Federal Pensions Service (FPS):

• Communicates about pensions in a multi-channel approach;
• Calculates the salaried workers’ pensions, the pensions for civil servants and the guaranteed income supplement for the elderly (GRAPA/ garantie de revenus aux personnes âgées)
• Pays the pensions for salaried workers, civil servants and self-employed workers and the guaranteed income supplement for the elderly;
• Actively supports the decision making at a political level.

In one year:

• The FPS pays 37 billion euros to 2,35 million pensioners worldwide;
• 80 000 citizens call the toll-free Pensions Helpline;
• 174 000 (future) pensioners visit a Pensions Point;
• 2 500 000 interested citizens visit the FPS’s website;
• 1 700 000 citizens (2016) visit their online pension dossier, www.mypension.be;
• The FPS receivers more than 170 000 letters and e-mails requesting information.

About The Swedish Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten):
The Swedish Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten) manages, administers and pays the Swedish State pension. We also provide general and specific information to individuals regarding total pension. Every year we pay out around EUR 30 billion to 2.2 million pensioners and manage more than 800,000 fund allocations. The Swedish Pension Agency has approximately 1 100 employees in eight locations in Sweden. We make pensions easier, so people can live their lives today.
www.pensionsmyndigheten.se/

About PGGM
PGGM is a cooperative Dutch pension fund service provider. Institutional clients are offered: asset management, pension fund management, policy advice and management support. On December 31, 2018 PGGM had EUR 211 billion in assets under management and was administrating pensions of 4.4 million participants. Around 750,000 workers in the Dutch healthcare are connected to PGGM&CO, our members organization. Either alone or together with strategic partners, PGGM develops future solutions by linking together pension, care, housing and work.
www.pggm.nl

About VBL
The Versorgungsanstalt des Bundes und der Länder (VBL) has been providing public-sector occupational pensions for 80 years. It is the largest provider of supplementary pensions in Germany. Occupational pensions are based on the collective labour agreements negotiated between employers and the unions.
Currently some 5,300 participating employers and about 4.6 million insured employees use VBL’s services. It is one of the biggest institutional capital investors in Germany.
More than 1.3 million pensioners receive a supplementary pension from VBL alongside their state pension. The VBL pay out about € 5.1 billion in supplementary pensions every year.
VBL is the first port of call for the public sector when it comes to occupational pensions. The supplementary pension institution advises and informs employees, pensioners and employers alike. As a public agency, the VBL does not charge broker commission or sales fees. Their customers benefit from below-average administration costs. www.vbl.de/

About AEIP
The European Association of Paritarian Institutions – AEIP, founded in 1996, is a Brussels-based advocacy organization, representing Social Protection Institutions established and managed by employers and trade unions on a joint basis within the framework of collective agreements.
In the context of social protection, paritarism is a type of self-organization of social relationships which on the basis of equal negotiations, brings about agreements which are equally binding on both employers and employees. This kind of self-organization goes from the paritarism of negotiation to the paritarism of management and results in various types of agreements, from adhesion to a particular form of cover to the creation of a paritarian institution.
The Association has 20 Associate and Affiliate members - all leading large and medium-sized Social Protection Institutions, from 12 European countries, as well as 13 Task Force Members from 3 European countries. All AEIP members are not-for-profit organizations.
In particular, AEIP deals – through dedicated working groups – with EU coordinated pension schemes, pension funds, healthcare, unemployment and provident schemes, paid holiday and health & safety at work schemes. Complementary to their role as non-for-profit social protection providers, AEIP members are also long-term institutional investors.
AEIP represents its members’ values and interests at the level of both European and international institutions.
www.aeip.net