Creation of pension insurance

Social security in Luxembourg has developed in stages. On the one hand, there has been the development based on socio-professional categories, and on the other, the development based on branches of risk.

Since its origins at the beginning of the 20th century, social insurance has mainly been limited to salaried employees, with the exception of accident insurance, which also covered farmers. The laws of 31 July 1901, 5 April 1902 and 6 May 1911 successively introduced compulsory health insurance, accident insurance and pension insurance for manual workers and private employees whose income did not exceed a certain ceiling. The various branches were incorporated into the Social Insurance Code by the Act of 17 December 1925.

Gradually, social protection was extended to the entire working population. The law of 29 January 1931 introduced general pension insurance cover for private employees. After the Second World War, the law of 29 August 1951 created compulsory general sickness insurance for civil servants and employees. Among the self-employed, artisans were the first to benefit from a pension insurance scheme, introduced by the law of 21 May 1951. This socio-professional category, as well as shopkeepers and industrialists, have been insured against sickness since the law of 29 July 1957. A pension fund for traders and industrialists was created by the law of 22 January 1960.

In the agricultural sector, the laws of 3 September 1956 and 13 March 1962 created an agricultural pension fund and an agricultural sickness fund respectively.

The law of 23 May 1964 regulates sickness insurance and pension insurance for self-employed intellectual workers, bringing them into line with the schemes applicable to private employees.

Civil servants and employees in the public sector (state, municipalities, public establishments, CFL – Luxembourg National Railway Company) benefit from a statutory pension scheme. The laws of 8 January 1996 and 8 August 1998 brought these statutory schemes into line with the general scheme.

The law of 13 May 2008 introducing a single status (which came into force on 1 January 2009) put an end to the distinction between the socio-professional categories of private employees and blue-collar workers in terms of social security and employment law. More specifically, in terms of social security, the single status has led to the generalisation of continued remuneration in the event of illness and the merger of private sector sickness funds and pension funds.