Missing AOW years: what they cost, and buying them back

How big your gap is

You build up 2% of a full AOW (the Dutch state pension) for each year you live or work in the Netherlands, over the 50 years before your AOW age. Each year you weren't insured is missing. In 2026 a full AOW for someone living alone is €21,203 a year before tax, so each missing year costs about €424 a year, for life.

With an AOW age of 67, the window starts at 17. Count the years from 17 to the year you arrived: that's your gap, at 2% each.

The table assumes you stay until your AOW age. Years you live abroad later make the gap bigger the same way. Your AOW age depends on your date of birth, and the window moves with it: the AOW guide has the table.

What it costs you

The AOW is paid for the rest of your life, so a gap is a cut you feel every year from your AOW age.

The rate for people living alone is higher, €1,662.16 a month in full, and the gap takes the same share off it.

Years abroad that count anyway

Years you didn't live in the Netherlands aren't always lost. If you lived or worked in another EU or EEA country, or in Switzerland, that country pays its own state pension for those years, from its own pension age. The Netherlands also has social security treaties with some other countries that can work in a similar way; the SVB can tell you whether yours is one.

So a gap in your AOW can be partly filled by pensions from the countries you lived in before. Each one has its own rules and its own age, and you usually apply to each separately, through the pension body where you live when you retire.

Years in which you were insured for another country's state pension also can't be bought back as AOW years. Buying back is for years in which no country's state pension covered you.

Buying back missing years

The SVB calls it inkoop AOW: voluntary insurance for the years you missed. You can buy missing years if:

• you first came to live or work in the Netherlands within the 50 years before your AOW age
• you apply within 10 years of first coming to live or work in the Netherlands
• you've lived or worked in the Netherlands for 5 years, so you've been insured for the AOW for 5 years
• you haven't reached your AOW age yet

Years you were insured in another EU country can count towards the 5 years. You can't buy back AOW if you get a pension from an EU country for the same years. The SVB checks each case, so contact them if you aren't sure.

What buying back costs

You pay a premium for each year you buy. It's a percentage of your total income in that year, from the Netherlands and abroad, with a minimum and a maximum. From 1 July 2026 the minimum is €3,876 a year, the premium on the minimum wage, and you pay it even for a year with no income. Years in which you were 20 or younger cost less, between €66 and €2,777 each.

Each year you buy adds 2% of a full AOW for life. Living with a partner, that's about €290 a year before tax; living alone, about €424.

Does buying back pay off?

At the minimum premium, a year bought pays for itself after about 13 years of AOW if you live with a partner, or about 9 years if you live alone, before tax. Someone who gets their AOW at 67 and lives to 85 gets 18 years of it.

It pays off less if your premium is above the minimum, if you'll live with a partner when your AOW starts, or if you expect a pension from another country for the same years. It pays off more because the AOW rises with wages each year. Against that, you pay the premium now and get the extra AOW only from your AOW age, and the money for the premium could be invested instead, so compare it with what that would grow to.

If you buy years, keep the SVB's decision with your pension papers. Mijn SVB then shows the bought years in your AOW, and mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl shows the higher amount you'll get from your AOW age. If you later move abroad, the years you bought stay yours, like the years you lived in the Netherlands.

The SVB works out your premium when you apply, and its online tool gives an estimate. Ask early: the 10-year deadline runs from the year you arrived, not from when you start thinking about retirement.