Voluntary pension insurance affiliation

When a person is no longer contributing to the compulsory pension scheme, they have the option of voluntary pension insurance affiliation with the Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale - CCSS). The purpose of this voluntary insurance is to maintain the person's pension insurance record and therefore their entitlement to old age, disability and survivor's pension insurance benefits.

There are different types of voluntary pension insurance:

• continued insurance, the aim of which is to continue the insurance of persons who no longer have a professional activity in order to maintain their entitlement to pension insurance benefits (old age, disability and survivor's pensions).
  
• optional insurance, which enables insured persons who have given up their professional activity for family reasons and no longer meet the conditions for admission to continued insurance to maintain their entitlement to pension insurance benefits (old age, disability and survivor's pensions).
  
• complementary insurance, which enables persons insured with a compulsory pension scheme to increase their contributions to top up their pension insurance, or to make up any months missing in their pension insurance record due to having worked an incomplete month or reduced working hours.

Persons concerned

Any person who wishes to continue or top up their pension insurance.

How to proceed

Prerequisites

To be admitted to the continued insurance scheme, the person concerned must:

• be 18 or over;
• have contributed to the compulsory insurance scheme for at least 12 months in the 3 years preceding the end of compulsory insurance; 
  

Periods considered as 'compulsory' are, for example: professional activity whether salaried or self-employed, periods receiving unemployment benefit, the so-called 'Baby-Years' (see the CNAP website for more information).

• make their application within 6 months of losing their compulsory insurance.

If the application is not made within this 6-month period, it will automatically be converted into an application for optional voluntary pension insurance.

To be admitted to the optional insurance scheme, the person concerned must:

• be 18 or over;
• have contributed to the compulsory insurance scheme for at least 12 months. 
  

Periods considered as 'compulsory' or equivalent are, for example: professional activity whether salaried or self-employed, periods receiving unemployment benefit, the so-called 'Baby-Years' (see the CNAP website for more information).

• obtain a favourable opinion from the Social Security Medical Board (CMSS) (Contrôle médical de la sécurité sociale - CMSS);
• have reduced or ceased their professional activity for family reasons. At the time of applying the following are taken into account: periods of marriage or civil partnership, periods spent bringing up minors, periods spent providing care or assistance to a person recognised as dependent;
• be 65 or under;
• not be entitled to a personal pension.

To be admitted to the complementary insurance scheme, the person concerned must meet the conditions of admission for continued pension insurance.

Applying for voluntary pension insurance affiliation

A person who wishes to continue or top up their pension insurance record must send the 'Application for continued/complementary/optional pension insurance (Pdf, 132 Kb)' form to the CCSS.

The application for admission to the continued or complementary pension insurance scheme must be made within 6 months of losing affiliation or reducing professional activity.

On the form, the applicant must specify:

• the type of insurance (continued, complementary or optional);
• the start date of the insurance;
• the contribution base.

Further information can be found in the 'Start of insurance' and 'Amount of the contributions' sections below.

At the end of the form, the applicant can also specify whether they wish to pay the contributions by direct debit.

After receiving the application, the CCSS checks whether the conditions of admission are met and informs the applicant of the decision.

Start date of voluntary pension insurance

In the case of continued or complementary insurance, the person concerned may ask it to take effect either:

• on the first day of the month following the month when the application is made;
• on the first day of the month following the month when affiliation was lost or the professional activity reduced (at the most 6 months before the application);
• on the first day of the month following the end of periods spent bringing up children in Luxembourg recognised as so-called 'Baby-Years' (www.cnap.lu).

Optional insurance takes effect on the first day of the month following the month when the application is made.

Contributions for voluntary pension insurance

The contribution rate for voluntary pension insurance is 16 %.

The monthly contribution base is situated between the minimum wage and the 'individual ceiling'.

Paying voluntary pension insurance contributions

Every month, the CCSS sends the insured an account statement that serves as an invoice.

The contributions must be paid by the person concerned or their appointed authorised representative.

Forms