Old-age pension in Finland

Old-age pension in Finland consists primarily of earnings-related pension, which all persons in paid employment accrue during their working career. If your earnings-related pension is small or you are not getting any at all, your old-age pension is national pension and possibly guarantee pension, which are residence-based pensions.

Here you will find information on old-age pension in Finland. For more information on other pensions paid in Finland and on the pension system and pension coordination in general, see the page on the Finnish pension system. 

For the majority of pensioners, their earnings-related pension is their most important source of income. Pensions can consist of several parts, however. In addition to earnings-related pension, pensions can be made up of national pension, guarantee pension and pensions from other countries.

Entitlement to earnings-related pension

Entitlement to earnings-related pension comes from paid employment as a wage earner or self-employed person based on mandatory pension insurance. Grant-funded researchers and artists also accrue earnings-related pension. Pension is accrued from employment income according to a certain annual percentage. If you have accrued earnings-related pension in Finland, the pension is paid to you regardless of which country you live in. Read more on the Työeläke.fi website.

Entitlement to national pension

Entitlement to national pension is based on residence in Finland. The condition for receiving national pension is that you have lived in Finland for at least three years after reaching the age of 16. However, the waiting period can also accrue if you are covered by the social security system of another EU or EEA country or Switzerland before moving to Finland. Persons who live in other EU or EEA countries or Switzerland and who have previously been covered by the Finnish social security system may also receive a national pension from Finland.

To qualify for a national pension in Finland, your other pensions and allowances must not exceed a certain limit. The amount of the national pension is calculated relative to the period of time that you have lived in Finland. Unless you have lived in Finland for at least 80 per cent of the period between the ages of 16-65, the national pension is decreased according to the periods that you have lived abroad. The amount of the national pension is affected not only by other pensions but also by family circumstances. Read more on the website of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela).

Entitlement to guarantee pension

Guarantee pension from Kela provides residents of Finland with a minimum pension. You may be entitled to guarantee pension if the total of all your other pensions is below a certain earnings limit. Read more on Kela’s website

Your pension record contains details of the earnings-related pension you have earned in Finland. If you have Finnish online banking codes, you can check your pension record on the Työeläke.fi online service.

You can also order your pension record from the Finnish Centre for Pensions by phone or in writing. Read more on the website Työeläke.fi.

There are upper and lower age limits for different age groups. You can retire on earnings-related pension at the lowest pensionable age for your age group aged between 63-65. The pensionable age for the national pension is 65 years for persons born in 1965 or earlier. For persons born after 1965, old-age pension from the national pension scheme is tied to a personal pensionable age based on the earnings-related pension acts. You can check your pensionable age on the Työeläke.fi website.

Partial old-age pension leaves you free to work while drawing a pension: there is no limit on the work you do, but it is not required either. Partial old-age pension can be paid out early, at your own lowest pensionable age or later. The earliest you can retire on a partial old-age pension is at the age of 61 years. You can draw 25% or 50% of the pension that you have accrued up to that time. Read more on the website Työeläke.fi.

National pension can also be paid out early, in which case a reduction for early retirement is made. Read more about early old-age pension from the national pension scheme on Kela’s website.

If you continue working after the lowest pensionable age, you can accrue further pension up to the upper age limit of the insurance obligation, i.e. until the age of 68-70. If you do not take your pension at the lowest pensionable age, you will get an increase for late retirement. Read more on the Työeläke.fi website.

Old-age pension can begin when your employment relationship has ended. You can, however, continue working in another employment relationship or as a self-employed person.

There are different ways of claiming pension depending on whether you live in Finland or another Nordic country.

Earnings-related pension and national pension are also paid to you in another Nordic country. Housing allowance for pensioners is not paid abroad. Read more on the website Suomi.fi.

Guarantee pension is only paid to persons living in Finland. Guarantee pensioners can, however, reside temporarily abroad without losing their entitlement to the guarantee pension. Read more on Kela’s website

If you are an employee, your employment relationship must end before your old-age pension can start. If you are self-employed, you do not need to end your self-employed activity in order to get old-age pension.

As an old-age pensioner you can continue to work in a new employment relationship or as a self-employed person. You can accrue new earnings-related pension up to the upper limit of the insurance obligation. Read more on the website Työeläke.fi.

You can get information on taxation of pensions on the Nordic tax portal Nordisk eTax.

When an old-age pensioner dies, the old-age pension ends at the end of the calendar month when the pensioner dies. Old-age pension is not paid to family members of the deceased, therefore. A surviving spouse and under-age children can get survivor’s pension, which must be claimed separately. Read more on the page Benefits in Finland in the event of bereavement

If the pensioner was not a Finnish citizen or did not live in Finland permanently, the death is usually not notified to the Finnish authorities. In this case the death must be notified to the pension payer as soon as possible by phone or in writing.