AOW, healthcare and pension in England: what comes along, what stops — and the treaty route almost nobody knows

Brexit broke a lot, but less than most people think. For your AOW, your pension and — surprisingly — the healthcare of pensioners, new agreements between the EU and the UK have applied since 2021, and for Dutch citizens they work out better than the stories suggest.

Your AOW: comes fully along, in pounds

The SVB answers the question in so many words: "Your AOW doesn't change." The AOW (the Dutch state pension) you have built up is paid out in full in the UK — not reduced, as can happen in countries without a treaty. The SVB transfers it in pounds, straight into your British account, and whoever wants to avoid double wage-tax withholding applies for an exemption certificate as soon as they are a British tax resident.

What does change is the accrual: it stops on the day you leave the Netherlands, and every missed year costs 2% of your AOW later. You can continue the accrual voluntarily, but a clock is ticking: you can sign up until at most one year after departure, after that the door is shut. Cheap it is not — 17.9% of your income, with in 2026 a minimum of € 569 and a maximum of € 5,693 a year. Set that against what you build up in British state pension yourself once you work there and pay contributions; for people in work the voluntary continuation is by no means always worth it, for whoever doesn't work more often it is.

Healthcare: two routes, and almost nobody knows one of them

Your Dutch health insurance stops on the moving date — report the move to your insurer yourself. What replaces it depends on why you're going.

If you're going to work, it's simple: with your visa you paid the Immigration Health Surcharge and are thereby covered by the NHS, like every Briton. Register with a GP and it runs.

If you move with a Dutch pension or benefit, something applies that after Brexit hardly anyone expects any more: the United Kingdom is still simply on the CAK's list of treaty countries. You sign up with the CAK, which passes your entitlement to care digitally to the British side — the S1 route, only without a paper form. You get full NHS care, plus an EHIC from the CAK for travel through Europe. For that you pay a treaty contribution that is withheld from your AOW, calculated with the country-of-residence factor of the UK — 0.8498 in the most recent table, so around 15% below the Dutch premium. The CAK advises starting three months before departure; the application is completed within four weeks.

If you leave before your AOW age, keep a reservation in mind. The CAK has announced that the treaty health insurance is expected, from 1 November 2026, to be open to new applicants only with a statutory benefit — AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong; early retirement and RVU fall outside it. That announcement names the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, and whether it also carries through into the Brexit agreements with the UK has not yet been confirmed. If you leave on early retirement alone, put your situation to the CAK before that date. What exactly changes, and what you can do now.

The tax treaty: who may tax

The Netherlands and the UK have had a full tax treaty since 2008, and the main rules are clear. Wages are taxed where you work. Pensions, annuities and the AOW are taxed where you live — so for you soon in the UK, at British rates. The exception is a government pension (ABP from government employment): that the Netherlands keeps taxing. Your second-pillar pension simply stays with your Dutch fund and is paid out in due course; arrange the exemption certificate by then, otherwise two countries withhold at the same time and you get to reclaim the difference.

Assets that stay behind in the Netherlands

Three rules from the same treaty for whoever keeps a house, shares or savings. A rented-out house in the Netherlands stays fully taxed in the Netherlands — income from immovable property belongs to the country where the property lies (article 6). On dividend from a Dutch company the Netherlands as source state may withhold 10% — the lowest standard rate of the treaties on this site (article 10). And interest is exclusively for your state of residence: on Dutch savings interest only the UK taxes (article 11).

And child benefit?

That's the honest bad news: unlike within the EU, the Dutch child benefit does not export to the UK. You still receive it up to and including the quarter of the move, after that it stops. And don't count on the British schemes in the first years: a Skilled Worker visa comes with the condition that you cannot claim most public funds. Take that into account in the family budget — with several children it makes a difference of hundreds of euros a quarter.