Old-age pension

Old-age pension secures your livelihood when your career ends. You can choose the time of retirement when you have reached your minimum retirement age and your employment has ended. The longer you continue in working life, the more pension you accrue.

Apply for old-age pension in Varma Online Service

All you need to do is submit your pension application two weeks before you plan to retire.

If you also apply for pension abroad, you can submit your old-age pension application at the earliest six months before the start of the pension.

1. Check your retirement age with the pension calculator

You can retire on old-age pension at the earliest from the beginning of the month following your minimum retirement age.

Minimum retirement age: Your minimum retirement age indicates the earliest possible time when you can retire on old-age pension. Your minimum retirement age depends on your year of birth. If you were born in 1964 or earlier, your minimum retirement age has already been confirmed. The retirement ages of younger people are forecasts.

Maximum retirement age: The maximum retirement age refers to the age at which pension accrual ends, even if you continue to work.

You can use the pension calculator to determine your retirement age

2. Estimate the amount of your pension before submitting your pension application

In Varma Online Service, you can calculate an estimate of the amount of your old-age pension before submitting your pension application. Once you have applied for pension, it is no longer possible to calculate an estimate. The longer you work, the higher your pension will be.

Increase for late retirement: If you retire after your minimum old-age pension age, the increase for late retirement increases your pension amount by 0.4% for every month of deferred retirement.

Calculate your pension estimate in Varma Online Service

3. Your employment relationship must end before your pension begins

Agree on the termination of your employment in good time to ensure a smooth retirement. If the employment relationship has not been terminated, we cannot pay old-age pension and the pension already paid must be recovered. You do not need to append a notice of termination to the application.

As a self-employed person, you can continue your activities during your pension. However, your YEL insurance will be terminated at the end of the month preceding the start of your pension.
Pension may be granted to persons who have reached the maximum retirement age even if the employment relationship continues.

You can start a new employment relationship on old-age pension.

4. Complete the old-age pension application in Varma Online Service

Apply for pension two weeks before the desired start date of pension. In Varma Online Service, you can review the application in advance and check what information you will need.

To complete the pension application through Varma Online Service, log in to the service. Select "Pension applications" in the navigation area of the online service and then select old-age pension as the type.
Find out your IBAN account number, information on other benefits or pensions and information on other benefits or daily allowances for the current and previous year for the application in advance.
If you have also worked for a public sector employer (e.g. a municipality or state), indicate in the application whether you are also applying for the pension accrued from it at the same time.
The same form can be used to apply for both earnings-related and national pension.
You can easily monitor the processing of the application in Varma Online Service. The average processing time varies, but it is currently about a week.

Apply for pension by logging in to Varma Online Service

Alternatively, you can fill in the PDF application form and send it to Varma by secure e-mail or regular post.

You can find paper applications on työeläke.fi

5. Fill in Appendix U if you have lived or worked abroad

You can apply for pension for work carried out in EU and EEA member states, Switzerland, the UK and social security agreement countries with the same application that you use for applying for pension for work carried out in Finland.

If you have lived or worked abroad, please also fill in Appendix U in Varma Online Service. The appendix requests information about your residence and employment abroad. Appendix U must be completed even if you are not yet applying for pension for work carried out abroad. The information you fill in will be used in determining the impact of your stay abroad on your earnings-related pension and national pension.

The last point: Pension decision

Provisional decision: We will usually first give you a temporary decision on your application. We will make a temporary decision before all the factors affecting the amount of your pension are known, such as your last salary.

Final decision: In the final pension decision, we have taken into account all factors affecting the amount of your pension, including the increase for late retirement. You do not need to apply for a final decision after the temporary decision, we will give it automatically. You will receive the final decision once all the necessary information is in the register. You will usually receive the final decision about two months after the start of your pension.

You can see your pension decision in the online service when you choose paperless service. Otherwise, we will send the decision by post to your home address.

With the decision, you will receive instructions from us that contain important information for the pensioner. The instructions remind you to obtain a new tax card for your pension as soon as possible after your pension has started. You can order a tax card for pension once you have received a temporary pension decision.

Read how to request a tax card for your pension

Applying for pension accrued by working during retirement

If you work on old-age pension, you will accrue pension of 1.5% of your earnings until your highest retirement age. At the earliest, the pension can start at the beginning of the following month after reaching your maximum retirement age. Old-age pension can be granted to you retroactively for a maximum of three months.

Fill in the old-age pension application

Do this when you want to get the pension accrued by working during retirement paid to you:

Log in to Varma Online Service with your online banking credentials or mobile ID.
Go to the “Pension applications” page and select “Old-age pension application”.
Fill in the old-age pension application. If you indicate a new account number on your application, we will pay your entire pension to the new account. Under “Pension being applied for”, select as the pension start date the date when you want the payment of the pension accrued by working during retirement to start.

Find more detailed information on working alongside your pension

Applying for national pension

National pension complements earnings-related pension. If your earnings-related pension falls below the income limit set by Kela, you can receive national pension. The same form can be used to apply for both earnings-related pension and national pension.

National pension is possible if your earnings-related pension falls below the income limit specified by Kela.
The retirement age is 65. You can apply for early old-age pension as of age 64. The retirement age for long-termed unemployed is 64 years, and it can be obtained based on additional days of unemployment benefits for those born before 1962.

Help with using our services

Take care of your pension matters online

In our online service, you can, for instance

calculate an estimate of the amount of your pension in advance
fill in an application for old-age pension
see how the processing of your application is progressing
see the decision on your pension in the electronic archive
use the services for pensioners once you have received a decision
send and receive messages and attachments.

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