Press Release from the
Kingdom Representative for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba and the
Dutch Caribbean Pension fund (PCN)
On Friday last pensioners on Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba received their pensions from the Pensionfonds Caribisch Nederland for the first time. PCN stands for the pension fund for civil servants and retired civil servants in the Dutch Caribbean who were formerly part of the general pension fund of the Netherlands Antilles (APNA). In many cases pensioners received a lower net payment than in December. This resulted because pension and AOV are paid out separately and therefore the pension fund had not adjusted a tax free amount for everyone older than 60 years. This had as consequence that too much tax was withheld.
This will be corrected. The Tax Department has agreed that following the allocation of the old age pension the remaining part of the tax free amount will still be included in the pension payment by the pension fund. As of next month PCN will still take into account the calculation of the tax free amount. Besides that the payment of January will be recalculated and where necessary extra payments will occur. On the short term each PCN pensioner will receive a letter with an explanation regarding the pension payment.
Remaining differences in the pension payment with regards to December has to do with two other factors. In the first place the old age pension, which increased by 17%, is now paid separately. In addition to this the health costs premium will from now on be included in the tax tariff and persons are no longer required to pay this separately. As communicated earlier, in principle, pensioners have more benefits in comparison with December 2010. However, individual situations can lead to different results. For more information contact RCN-Communication Unit Friso Fennema (795-9034) or PCN Secretary Herman van der Wind (701-9115).