After years of talks, the employers and trade unions have finally reached agreement on overhauling the current company pension scheme system, which includes a slow-down in the increase in the pension age, the Telegraaf said on Wednesday.

In addition, the unions and employers say, there should be far more scope for early retirement for older workers.

The paper bases its claims on a copy of the draft agreement.

The pension age in the Netherlands is set to rise to 67 by 2021 but will continue to go up in line with life expectancy rates.

The unions and employers now say the rise to 67 should be spread out over more years until 2025. The current speed of increase, they say, is ‘unsustainable in social and human terms’.

They also want to make it easier for older workers to stop working earlier if they can no longer manage. ‘More possibilities are needed for the current generation of older workers to stop working sooner if they are no longer able to’, the agreement states.

The draft agreement does not include mention of the ‘personal pension pots’ in the agreement – something the new government is keen to introduce to bring more flexibility into the pension system, the Telegraaf points out.

Update: Later on Wednesday both unions and employers said that there was no formal agreement and said the document in the hands of the Telegraaf is not a draft agreement, as the paper claimed.