The cabinet must come up with more money for the state pensions by freezing the pension age, if it wants the unions to make a deal on reforming the entire system, the FNV trade union said on Friday.

The FNV, the biggest pension federation in the Netherlands, said in a statement it will be ‘very diffcult to make an agreement with us’ without coming up with more cash. The state pension age in the Netherlands is currently 66 but will rise to 67 and three months by 2022.

‘There is money for the dividend tax, to give €2bn as a present to foreign firms, there is money to compensate for Groningen gas but the hard-working Dutchman is being forgotten,’ negotiator Tuur Elzinga said.

‘We have noted that our members only have one real concern and that is when they will be able to retire,’ he said. The union is particularly concerned about people who work in hard physical jobs and who do shift work.

The Dutch unions, employers organisations and lay members in the SER advisory group have been charged with coming up with plans for reforming the entire pension system but have made little progress in the past few years.

However, social affairs minister Wouter Koolmees has said reform is now a priority.