Netherlands: One in eight SME employers afraid of bankruptcy

• A quarter of employers would like to make savings on employees’ pensions

Over a third of Dutch small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are being held back considerably by the credit crisis. In order to be able to survive the crisis 50% of employers have taken measures, such as not extending expiring contracts, a stricter expenses regime and taking a fresh look at the way they do business. More than half of business owners think that the authorities are not doing enough to help them, according to the findings of a survey by Delta Lloyd Insurance NV*. Despite the fact that most SME employers think that the crisis will be over in a year, one in eight employers are nevertheless afraid of imminent bankruptcy.

Kept awake by the crisis
A quarter of the employers are seriously concerned about their businesses. They are kept awake at night above all by the future of their businesses, whether they will still be able to bring in sufficient work, by their own finances and how long they can hold on to their staff. Around a quarter of the employers say that they are personally suffering in order to be in business at the present time. Whereas smaller businesses can still keep afloat, owners of businesses with 101–250 employees are particularly affected by the crisis. Some 12% of these employers do not expect to survive the crisis.   

Saving on employees’ pensions
Alongside not extending expiring contracts, running a stricter expenses regime and taking a fresh look at the way they do business, savings are being made on secondary conditions of employment. Thus 14% of the employers are making savings on mobile phones and company cars, and 10% of the employers are no longer offering any training. Despite the fact that employers (55%) look on a good pension provision as the most important secondary condition of employment (after holiday entitlement), at the present time 25% would make savings on their employees’ pensions if that were possible.

Later retirement due to the crisis
The crisis does not only have consequences in terms of the future of the business, but also for the pension provision of the businessman himself. Thus for over a quarter of the employers their pensions have decreased in value. More than one in ten employers state that they cannot sell their businesses in current market conditions, and can only draw their pensions when the market has picked up. Regardless of whether or not they depend on their businesses for their financial provision, some 20% of the employers are afraid that, due to the credit crisis, they will not be able to retire as early as they had intended.

Made to measure pension arrangements
Harry van der Zwan, director of marketing and sales for Delta Lloyd Insurance NV says: “These are clearly tough times for SME businesspeople. The findings of the survey underline the importance of providing pension solutions which are both affordable and offer security. In order to help employers as much as possible we are offering pension solutions, in which employers themselves define what is important to them, such as the cost of premiums, security in terms of the accumulation and payment of pensions and budgeting. Alongside this we are investing in on-line processing in order to reduce the costs for the employer of arranging pensions.”

Appeal to the authorities
Insofar as they are able, SME businesspeople are taking as many measures as possible to survive the crisis, but the authorities must do more to help them with this, according to the view of over half of the employers. Measures which the authorities ought to be taking are: lowering taxes (74%), making it easier to obtain credit (48%), stimulating investment (40%) and making redundancy laws more flexible (25%).

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* Kien conducted a quantitative survey commissioned by Delta Lloyd of 508 SME employers in August 2009.

Factsheet - Survey of the effects of the credit crisis on SME employers (PDF 31KB)

Further information:
Marijke Peijnenburg
Spokesperson for Delta Lloyd Insurance
Telephone: 020 594 29 39
E-mail: pers@deltalloyd.nl