What the model assumes about Belgium

This page collects every Belgium-specific number the model starts from: when the state pension begins and how it behaves, what healthcare and long-term care cost, what a retired household spends, and how tax is worked out. The planner prefills each of them, and you can change any of them during setup. Amounts are in EUR at today's prices, and the same data files drive the simulation itself, so a figure you read here is the figure your plan runs on.

The state pension

Starts at 67. The planner uses this both as your default retirement age and as the start age of your state pension.

Source: Service federal des Pensions (SFPD) (2025). See it.

With inflation. Belgian state pensions rise automatically by 2 percent each time a smoothed measure of consumer prices, which leaves out fuel, alcohol and tobacco, crosses a set threshold. On top of that, governments grant occasional extra rises to help pensions track living standards.

Source: Service federal des Pensions (SFPD) (2026). See it.

What a surviving partner keeps: 10% of the deceased's pension. The surviving spouse can receive a survivor pension based on the deceased partner's pension, but the survivor's own pension plus the survivor pension together are capped at 110% of a full survivor pension. Survivors with a full pension of their own therefore keep only a small top up.

Source: Service federal des Pensions (SFPD) (2026). See it.

How the simulation pays and raises pensions: the income section of the technical reference. What changes at the first death: the couples section.

Healthcare

€1,795 a year for each person, at 65. Health spending outside long-term care: visits, medicines, glasses, dental work and any premiums you pay yourself. The planner starts from this figure and moves it as you age. The source published €1,102. The published figure averages all adult ages, so we scaled it up to what someone at 65 spends.

Source: SPF Securite sociale (Federal Public Service Social Security), Belgium (2026). See it.

How the model ages this figure: the expenses section of the technical reference.

Long-term care

€27,200 a year out of your own pocket if you need residential care. Costs are split between the public system and you, by type of cost.

Source: Departement Zorg, Flemish Government (Belgium) (2025). See it.

The model does not add the whole charge on top of your budget: the groceries, and for renters the housing, that a care home replaces are credited back. How the care model works.

What a retired household spends

€1,377 + €435/mo for one person, €2,066 + €653/mo (derived) for a couple. Essential spending plus everything-else spending, each month, excluding housing and healthcare, which the planner asks about separately. The prefills come from Statbel Huishoudbudgetonderzoek (HBS) 2024, TAB04_BE group 'Alleen ouderen' (households consisting only of persons 65+), published 2 Sep 2025. The couple figure applies a documented factor of about one and a half to the single budget, because no couple budget is published.

Source: Statbel Huishoudbudgetonderzoek (HBS) 2024, TAB04_BE group 'Alleen ouderen' (households consisting only of persons 65+), published 2 Sep 2025 (2026). See it.

What each budget covers and how spending changes with age: the expenses section of the technical reference.

Tax

The model recalculates your tax bill for every simulated year, using Belgium's own scales, allowances and thresholds for the 2026 tax year, last read on 2026-07-30. The answers are checked against their rate data. Couples are assessed together where the rules allow it.

How Belgium taxes a retirement plan lists every figure, the tax office page each one came from, and everything the model does not do there.

Everything we read

Every publication behind the pension, care, healthcare and budget figures above. The tax page carries its own references, one per figure.