Old-age pension

Retiring on an old-age pension depends on age. You can retire once you reach the lowest old-age pension age and when your employment has ended.

Public sector employees might have other retirement ages:

  • person old-age retirement age
  • occupational retirement age

Find out your own retirement age. The online My Pension service is the easiest way to check your retirement age. My Pension 

If your earnings-related pension is small or you don’t receive one, you can receive a national pension. You can find out more about the national pension on the Kela website:  Pensions (Kela.fi)

Reaching retirement age does not mean that you have to apply for old-age pension. You can keep working for as long as you like.

Pension will continue to accrue until the age of 68, and even longer if you were born after 1957. After eligibility for old-age pension starts, a deferment increase of 0.4% will be added to the pension for each month between the general retirement age and the actual time of retirement.

General retirement age

The general retirement age for people born before 1 January 1955 is 63.

For people born after 1 January 1955, the general retirement age is as follows:

Year of birth General retirement age for old-age pension Upper age limit at which pension accrues
1955 63y 3m 68y
1956 63y 6m 68y
1957 63y 9m 68y
1958 64y 69y
1959 64y 3m 69y
1960 64y 6m 69y
1961 64y 9m 69y
1962–1964 65y 70y
1965– to be confirmed

to be confirmed

Personal retirement age

The personal retirement age applies to you if

  • you were employed in the public sector before 1993, and
  • your public sector employment continues without interruption until you reach your personal retirement age

It pays to keep working until your reach your personal retirement age for old-age pension because then the old-age pension under public law that has accrued to you before 1995 will be paid to you in a higher amount than if you retire at the lower general retirement age.

Check your own personal retirement age in the service My Pension (in Finnish).

Occupational retirement ages

Occupational retirement ages used to apply to certain local government, state and church jobs and allowed the people working these jobs to retire before the general retirement age.

When the occupational retirement age was discontinued, the local government and state employees to whom it applied could choose whether to keep their occupational retirement age or switch to the general retirement age. The choice of occupational retirement age will remain in effect until retirement, provided that there are no interruptions in employment.

Jobs where the occupational retirement age applies include police officers, prison guards and comprehensive school teachers. Special resignation ages that are lower than the general retirement age continue to apply to employees of the Defence Forces and the Border Guard.

The occupational retirement age cannot be higher than the lowest retirement age for old-age pension applicable to the age group, however.

How to apply for old-age pension

1. Check your information

Before applying, check the information in your pension record through the online My Pension service because the amount of your pension is calculated on the basis of the information contained in the record. At the same time, you can report any changes needed to your employment record.

2. Hand in your notice

Before applying for a pension, agree matters relating to retirement and termination of your employment with your employer.

Hand in your notice in good time. We recommend that you hand in your notice at least three months before you actually retire. This smooths the transition to retirement because you must end your employment before you can begin to receive your pension.

If you have recurring short-term jobs, you must also end these before retiring.

3. Apply for your pension online

You can apply for your old-age pension at the earliest six months before you intended to retire.

Apply for your old-age pension easily and quickly through Keva’s online My Pension service. When you log on to the service, your pension application contains most of your information – all you need to do is to check and complete the information.

Online My Pension (available in Finnish and Swedish only)

We will begin to process your application 40 days before the retirement starting date you have stated. Until then, you can change or complete the information in your application or cancel your application. If your file your application less than 40 days before the date your hope to start your retirement, we will start to process your application immediately. Once a start has been made on processing your application, you can no longer change the information in it.

While you are in the My Pension service, you can also apply for the national pension. We will forward your application to Kela.

 

You can also send your application by mail:

Old-age pension always starts on the 1st of the month. In other words, your earliest pension start date is the 1st of the month following the month in which you applied for the pension. The pension may also be granted with 3 months’ retroactive effect.

Please also see the general instructions for pension applications and what to do after receiving your pension decision.

Have you worked while on pension?

Pension that has accrued for employment while on pension can only be paid after you have applied for it. 

If you worked while on an old-age pension

You accrue new pension while employed until the upper age limit at which pension accrues. The upper age limit depends on your year of birth. If, for example, you were born in 1958, you would continue to accrue pension until the end of the month in which you reach 68 years. If you were born in 1958-1961, you would continue to accrue pension until the end of the month in which you reach 69 years.

Apply for your pension when you have reached the upper age limit at which pension accrues. You do not need to stop working even if you do claim a pension accruing from work during retirement. Apply for your pension in the My Pension service using the old-age pension application form.

You can also receive this pension automatically if you give your prior consent for the pension to be granted in the My Pension service. Once you have given your consent, you no longer need to apply for the pension. We grant the pension to you automatically at the upper age limit at which pension accrues.

The My Pension service is available in Finnish and Swedish only.

You can apply for the pension accrued for work done during retirement before the upper age limit if

  • the work done alongside your pension is covered by the Earnings-related Pensions Act under which you do not yet receive a pension or
  • you have been granted an old-age pension before 2017 and you have been working while on a pension in 2017 or thereafter.

However, the earliest the pension will be granted is at the lowest threshold for old-age pension in your age group. In addition, your employment must have ended.

If you worked while on a disability pension

If you are on disability pension, the new pension that has accrued to you for employment while on pension will be paid to you when your disability pension is converted into old-age pension. You must also file an application for this pension.

When applying for the new pension, follow the directions for applying for old-age pension above.