Rewire and its festival grew considerably over the past few years. Part of that growth was hiring core team members as staff. Since Rewire isn’t part of a collective labour agreement, the organisation had to shape its own pension scheme, expertise it didn’t have in house, so they brought in an external advisor. Platform ACCT’s schemes gave them the financial room to do so.

Mara Liza first applied for a Verkenningsbijdrage, and later, also the Pensioenstimulans. What mattered to Rewire was a modern scheme that gives employees their own freedom of choice, and a pension fund that takes sustainability seriously. They chose a.s.r.: the employer’s share goes into the pension scheme, while employees decide for themselves on their own share. During an information morning run by the pension advisor, employees learned about the different ways to build up assets for later. “That’s how we want to give employees ownership, while also taking good care of them.”

Stichting Centraal Theater Gorinchem sought alignment with the relevant cultural codes, such as the Fair Practice Code and the Governance Code, partly because the municipality referred to these in its (amended) subsidy requirements. Treasurer Jack Oostrum applied for both the Verkenningsbijdrage and the Pensioenstimulans, and received both. The applications went smoothly, Jack says. “Without complicated administrative procedures.”

After research and consultation with NPI, the foundation chose a pension scheme with Allianz. One important consideration: the only employee, the director/coordinator, was already 63 and had few years left to build up a pension. Allianz, with the option to keep saving up to age 70, offered the best fit.

Collectief Blauwdruk was exploring setting up payroll administration, partly prompted by the Platform ACCT contribution for hiring self-employed professionals as staff, when business producer Anne Oort also came across the Pensioenstimulans. “That tipped the scales for us. There was quite a bit of work involved in figuring everything out around hiring people, so it was good that this scheme gave us the room to do that research.”

The application went smoothly and easily. “At first it was a bit unclear what the difference was between the percentage of pension costs that was covered and the bonus, but that became clear eventually.”

Collectief Blauwdruk followed the cao Toneel en Dans (collective labour agreement for theatre and dance) and chose Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn. “We didn’t really have freedom of choice there, but we’re happy with that pension regardless. Before, as self-employed professionals, we had no provision for that. It feels good that we can now offer that to others who join us temporarily as well.”

Studio Figur hired a number of self-employed professionals as staff, and that was the reason for business manager Hans Lebouille to apply for the Pensioenstimulans. The application went, as he describes it himself, “extremely smoothly.”

Studio Figur chose a pension with Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn, based on the applicable collective labour agreement. “It’s really helpful that there’s a contribution towards setting up the pension enrolment, it made the transition from self-employment to an employment contract easier for a number of people involved.”