The purpose of a retroactive purchase of insurance periods is to:

• allow a person who has interrupted or reduced their professional activity for family reasons to retroactively complete incomplete or missing insurance periods; or
• cover insurance periods completed:
  • with an inter- or supranational institution; or
  • in a foreign pension scheme not covered by a bi- or multilateral agreement.

In the first case, the applicant can make a retroactive purchase for family reasons for the following periods during which they interrupted or reduced their professional activity, provided they took place after the age of 18:

• marriage periods;
• periods spent raising a minor child;
• periods of care for a person recognised as dependent or severely disabled.

In the second case, they can make an 'actuarial' retroactive purchase for periods of affiliation to:

• a foreign pension scheme not recognised by a bilateral agreement; or
• a pension scheme of an international organisation, provided that you have received a lump-sum redemption or actuarial equivalent from that scheme.

Please note that periods of higher education are not eligible for retroactive purchase.

Who is concerned

Anyone residing in a Member State of the European Union or the European Economic Area, provided they have been affiliated to the Luxembourg pension insurance scheme at some point of time.

Prerequisites

For a retroactive purchase request to be admissible, you must:

• have accrued 12 months of mandatory insurance contributions;
• not have a personal pension;
• not be over 65 years of age;
• reside in a Member State of the European Union or the European Economic Area at the time the application is submitted.

Deadlines

The application must be made before the age of 65 and before receiving a personal pension.

How to proceed

Application to make a retroactive purchase

The request for a retroactive purchase should be sent using the form (see 'Forms / Online services') to the body responsible for the professional activity last carried out (see form for details).

You can request a meeting with a member of staff from this body to clarify certain points and to determine the terms of payment.

Submitting the application does not mean that you are committing to a payment. The application can be withdrawn in writing at any time.

Options available to the applicant

Within the periods that can be completed, you must determine which months are subject to a retroactive purchase and set the contribution base to be taken into account for the months in question.

This contribution base cannot be:

• less than 1 times the social minimum wage (SSM) for the financial year in question;
• or, in the case of purchases for family reasons, higher than 2.5 times the SSM.

It is also possible to set the base to 1.5 x SSM or 2 x SSM.

As far as 'actuarial' purchases are concerned, you are free to set the income to be taken into account within the limit of the minimum contribution and the maximum contribution.

However, together with other pensionable income (compulsory or voluntary), the retroactive purchase base may never exceed a maximum of 5 x SSM.

Setting contributions

The amount of contributions to be paid for the retroactive purchase is set by the pension fund concerned. The contribution rate in force when the application is received is applied. The resulting figure is then increased by interest of 4 % per year.

Payment of contributions

On pain of forfeiture, contributions must be paid within 3 months of the pension fund's decision, which sets the contributions and serves as an invoice.

You may, however, request payment in instalments during this period, up to a maximum of 5 annuities. These annual payments are subject to a 4 % interest a year and are payable within 10 days of the due dates set.

Please note that the contributions in question are tax-deductible as special expenses.

Forms / Online services

Who to contact