For persons who are not subject to mandatory pension insurance, due to abandoning their professional activity there are 2 forms of voluntary insurance: continued pension insurance and optional pension insurance. There is also supplementary pension insurance to supplement the premiums paid for mandatory insurance.

Who is concerned

Continued or optional pension insurance may be granted to anyone who does not benefit from the mandatory pension insurance and who has been affiliated with mandatory pension insurance for a period of at least 12 months.

Supplementary insurance may be granted to anyone contributing to the mandatory pension insurance for at least 12 months in a reference period of 3 years and wishing to supplement the amount of their contributions.

Prerequisites

Continued pension insurance

Continued pension insurance is used to maintain insurance coverage, and thus the right to pension insurance benefits, and to supplement the contributions paid for mandatory pension insurance.

To benefit from continued pension insurance, the interested party must prove 12 months of mandatory pension insurance over a period of 3 years before losing the status of mandatory insured party. This reference period may be extended when it overlaps with similar periods (education of children, professional training, etc.) and with periods during which the person received the guaranteed minimum income or the income for severely disabled people.

The application for affiliation in the continued pension insurance scheme must be presented within 6 months following the loss of affiliation.

Supplementary pension insurance

Supplementary pension insurance allows the insured party to supplement their contributions paid for mandatory insurance with voluntary contributions.

To be able to benefit from supplementary insurance, the insured party must be enrolled for at least 12 months with the mandatory pension insurance over a period of 3 years prior to the application.

Optional pension insurance

Persons who do not qualify for continued pension insurance may be optionally insured.

In order to benefit from optional pension insurance, the following conditions must be met:

• the interested party must be a resident of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg;

• the interested party must have been enrolled in a mandatory insurance scheme for at least 12 months;

• they must demonstrated that the reduction or discontinuation of professional activity was for family reasons (periods of marriage, periods of raising a child under age 15, periods of providing care or aid to a recognised dependent);

• interested parties must not be older than 65 at the time of the application; 

• interested parties must not benefit from a personal pension;

• the Social Security Medical Board (Contrôle médical de la Sécurité sociale) must give a favourable opinion.

They must be a Luxembourg resident in order to qualify for the optional pension insurance; therefore, cross-border workers cannot enrol in this type of pension insurance.

How to proceed

Applying for enrolment in continued and supplementary pension insurance

Interested parties must present an application for continued enrolment by completing a form for the Joint Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale – CCSS) for the scheme in which the interested party was last enrolled. Applications for continued pension insurance are also valid for the supplementary pension insurance, and vice versa.

The application for affiliation in continued pension insurance must be presented within 6 months of loss of affiliation.

Application for enrolment in optional pension insurance

In order to benefit from optional pension insurance, the interested party must file an application for admission to optional pension insurance with the CCSS.

Basis of contributions and effective date

For the three forms of voluntary insurance (continued insurance, supplementary insurance and optional insurance), the monthly contribution basis cannot be less than the monthly minimum wage for an unskilled worker aged 18 or over, nor more than 5 times that salary.

The insured party, however, may request that it be reduced to one third of the monthly social minimum wage for a total not exceeding 60 months in the course of their insured life.

For supplementary insurance, the contributory basis used is the same as that used for mandatory insurance.

The interested party is free to set the duration of the continued, supplementary or optional insurance and the contributory basis. The option chosen at the time of application is valid for subsequent calendar years, unless it is adapted to take effect in January each year. The continued, supplementary or optional insurance must cover a continuous period.

The contributions are claimed monthly in the form of an advance by withdrawals from the account and on condition of a later adjustment.

The voluntary pension insurance takes effect on the first day of the month following that of the request.

For the continued or supplementary insurance, the insured party may request that it take effect from the first ^month following the loss of affiliation or or reduction in professional activity.

End of insurance cover

The voluntary insurance pension may be terminated on written statement from the insured party.

It terminates in case of non-payment of contributions within a period of 3 months following formal notice sent by registered mail to the insured party.

Appeals

In case of a dispute, an appeal may be filed with the Management Committee of the national pension insurance fund (Caisse nationale d'assurance pension) within 40 days of the notice of the decision.

The decision of the chairman of the Management Committee may be appealed before the Council of Arbitration of Social Security (Conseil arbitral de la Sécurité sociale – CASS). An appeal may be lodged against the ruling of the CASS with the High Council of Social Security (Conseil Supérieur de la Sécurité Sociale).

All appeals must be made in writing within 40 days of the notice of the decision or the ruling. Beyond that time frame, no appeals are accepted, and the decision becomes final.

Forms / Online services

Who to contact