Retroactive purchase and return
The law of 27 July 1987 on pension insurance in the event of old-age, invalidity and survival limited retroactive purchase to two specific situations:
- if a person covered by an international civil servant scheme returns to Luxembourg,
- in the event of enrolment of an insured person with a scheme that does not fall within the scope of an international social security instrument.
The law of 6 April 1999 adapting the general pension insurance scheme introduced the possibility of retroactively covering insurance periods insofar as the person concerned has reduced or abandoned his or her professional activity for family reasons.
Under Article 32 of the Law of 28 July 2000, persons who have benefited from a reimbursement of contributions may revive the rights initially attached to the relevant insurance periods by repaying the amount of the reimbursed contributions revalued in accordance with the Grand-Ducal Regulation of 5 May 1999, provided that at the time of the application they have not reached the age of sixty-five and are not entitled to a personal pension.
Retroactive purchase of insurance periods
Persons who have either given up or reduced their professional activity for family reasons, or who have benefited from a repaid sum or actuarial equivalent from a foreign pension scheme not covered by a bi- or multilateral social security instrument or from a pension scheme of an international organisation may cover or complete the corresponding periods by a retroactive purchase, provided that they are resident in Luxembourg and can prove that they have had compulsory insurance for twelve months. The residence condition may be waived where Community law or a bilateral agreement applies.
The relevant application should be sent on a standard form to the National Pension Insurance Office. Applications are not accepted if the applicant is over the age of sixty-five or is receiving a personal pension.
Read more
The following periods may be covered provided they are after the applicant's eighteenth birthday:
- Marriage and partnership periods
- Periods spent bringing up a minor child
- Periods of assistance and care provided in Luxembourg to a person recognised as dependent or seriously disabled
- Periods giving rise to the payment of a withdrawal indemnity by the special transitional scheme
- Periods of enrolment in a foreign pension scheme not covered by a bi- or multilateral instrument or in a pension scheme of an international organisation that has been reimbursed.
The contribution base must correspond either to the minimum contribution in force with the pension fund for private employees during these periods, or to one of the multiples of 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 of this minimum for periods 1 to 4 and to the maximum contribution in force with the same fund during the calendar year in question as regards the periods referred to under 5.
The amount of contributions to be paid for the retroactive purchase is set by the National Pension Insurance Office. The contribution rate in force at the time the request is received (currently 16%) is applied. The result thus calculated is increased by compound interest at a rate of four per cent per annum.
Under penalty of forfeiture, contributions must be paid within three months of the invoice date. However, the insured person may request payment in annual instalments, up to a maximum of five, within the aforementioned period.
Refund of contributions reimbursed
Persons who have benefited from a reimbursement of contributions may revive the rights initially attached to the relevant insurance periods by refunding the amount of the reimbursed contributions, provided that at the time of the application they are not over the age of sixty-five and are not entitled to a personal pension.
The refund includes the amount of contributions reimbursed, revalued taking into account compound interest at the rate of 4% per full year from the year following that in which the contributions were reimbursed until the end of the year preceding that in which the contributions were reimbursed.
It should be noted, however, that the rights attached to the non-reimbursed part are, in any case, revived by the completion of a new forty-eight-month period of compulsory, continued or optional insurance.
Read more
Reimbursement under the old provisions:
The organic laws of the four pension institutions allowed insured persons of the female sex to claim reimbursement of part of the contributions paid, subject to certain conditions and in the event of retirement.
The reimbursement of contributions was abolished with effect from 1 August 1978 for persons joining the insurance scheme after that date (Article 7 of the Law of 21 July 1978 amending the provisions concerning the pension rights of divorced women in contributory pension schemes) and generally for all insured persons with effect from 1 January 1991 (Article XV, paragraph 2 of the Law of 27 July 1987 concerning pension insurance in the event of old-age, invalidity and survival).
The reimbursement of contributions resulted in the loss of pension rights.
Last update