A structural risk
The Slow Leak
The funds that pay for Sint Maarten’s healthcare and pensions have run a deficit for years. The savings that cushion them fall from Cg 298.8M to Cg 178.3M by 2029 — down 40% in six years, and draining faster each year.
Reserves fall every year; the annual drain widens from Cg −19M (2025) to Cg −28.8M (2029). At this pace the cushion runs dry within a decade.
In the red every year
The health and social funds (ZV/OV/FZOG/AVBZ + OZR) spent more than they took in every year from 2020 to 2023 — an average deficit of about Cg 50M a year.
- 2020Cg −43.4M
- 2021Cg −56.1M
- 2022Cg −61.9M
- 2023Cg −47.3M
An ageing island
More people draw on pensions and care each year. The share of the population aged 65 and over more than doubled in just over a decade — pushing costs up as the working-age base that funds them shrinks.
share aged 65+
Source · Explanatory Notes to the 2026 National Budget, §3.2.10 (p.19): the ZV/OV/FZOG/AVBZ + OZR income statement and the healthcare/social-fund reserve projection, with the population-by-age table. Reserve figures are the government’s own multi-year projection; the “runs dry within a decade” note extends that trend and is illustrative.