Bert Lonterman, a pensioner, and enthusiastic visitor to our website, was the very first person to log their email address in MyIFFPension. In this blog he shares some of his experiences with the website and everything that you can do there.
Bert: “At the end of December, the pension fund’s new website went live. I am very happy about this. The pension fund already had a website with a lot of information on it, but sometimes you really had to search for it. This new website is much clearer, and you have access to your personal pension environment where you can view your own pension data and your mail. This is called a participant portal. I am really satisfied with this technological advancement, because with all of the constant changes in the world of pensions, it’s important that you as a participant stay in the know.
'You barely ever heard anything from those few people who organised everything for us.'
When I started working at IFF back in 1973, we still had a youth wage. A pension was something to think about later, when you were old. It’s not something you wanted to think or hear about. The latter didn’t bother us, because you barely ever heard anything from those few people who organised everything for us. But they could allow themselves to do that. When I now read the old minutes, I come to the conclusion that it was all a lot simpler. There was a final pay scheme with guaranteed value retention. IFF paid the premium. There were longer employment relationships, and the other relationships were also more consistent. Nobody was worried about a coverage ratio, value transfer, with or without (partial) indexing, possible discounts, navigation metaphor, partner pension or their own contribution. Brussels didn’t stick its nose into our pensions in those days either. Retiring early was possible under the Early Retirement Scheme, and then later on under the pre-pension scheme. Things have changed now.
'You need to organise your pension for the most part by yourself these days.'
Over the course of the years a lot has changed, and you need to organise your pension for the most part by yourself these days. As a participant the ball tends to be in your court a lot more often and that trend will continue with the new pension system. To organise your pension properly, you need information. This information has to be easy to find and comprehensible for the participant. It is of course also handy being able to manage all your pension business online. Changing an account number or an email address or uploading and sharing documents with the pension fund; it can all be done on our portal. Your annual statements, itemised pension statements and other mail from the pension fund? It can all be fund in your digital file. That’s why I am very happy with the new website and its participant portal. A genuinely excellent tool that you really must try. So, log in with your DigiD and get your pension affairs sorted.