Pensioner, important information as the end of the year approaches

From 3 December 2025, you can view in Varma Online Service the total amount of pension and withholding tax paid in 2025 as well as the gross pension amount for 2026. The 2026 tax rate will be updated in our service by 10 December at the latest. You can find pension payment details on the Payments and certificates page, where you can also save and print certificates of your pension, for example when applying for benefits or for your bank.

See detailed instructions

In the 2024 annual letter, we announced that, in future, annual letters will be available in Varma Online Service. The online service is a more secure way to deliver letters than sending by post. Giving up postal delivery is also environmentally friendly.

The annual letter (pdf), which shows your pension information for 2025 and 2026, will be available in the online service at the end of January. Legal guardians and pensioners living abroad will receive the letter by post.

If we have the pensioner's phone number, we send an SMS when the annual letter is available in Varma Online Service. Therefore, make sure that we have your current contact details by logging in to Varma Online Service and updating the information, if necessary. If we do not have your phone number, you will not be sent an SMS when the annual letter is available.

We receive pensioners’ tax rates automatically from the tax authority. The tax rates will be applied as of 1 January 2026.

We will receive pensioners’ tax cards for 2026 directly from the tax authority at the beginning of December. Therefore, if you receive pension from Varma, you do not need to submit the tax card sent by the tax authority to us. You can raise the tax rate provided by the tax authority in Varma Online Service once you have received information from the tax authorities about the tax rate for 2026.

If you are about to retire in November or early December, order a tax card for the remainder of 2025 and separately for 2026 from vero.fi, as in these situations we will not automatically receive tax cards for the year following the year in which your pension starts. Once you have ordered the tax card, the tax authorities will submit it directly to Varma.

If you are a Varma rehabilitee, you must submit a new tax card for the rehabilitation benefit as in previous years.

Earnings-related pensions payable in 2026 will be increased by the earnings-related pension index by approximately 0.88 per cent when compared to 2025. The earnings-related pension index is used to adjust earnings-related pensions payable that have started no later than on 1 December 2025. The earnings-related pension types to be increased are: old-age pension, partial old-age pension, disability pension, partial disability pension, cash rehabilitation benefit and partial cash rehabilitation benefit, rehabilitation allowance, years-of-service pension and survivors’ pensions (surviving spouse’s pension and orphan’s pension).

No separate index adjustment application is required, as we will automatically increase pensions in January.

Read our news release for more information on the index change

Pension for January will be paid on 2 January. Check the payment dates of all monthly pensions next year in the payment date calendar.

Pensioners living abroad and guardians receive the annual letter by post. The letter also includes a residence report, which must be completed and signed and returned to Varma by 16 March 2026 at the latest. This year, we are also asking for a completed and signed residence report from our pensioners living in Sweden and Norway for the first time, as we no longer receive confirmed information from the authorities in these countries.

The residence report must be returned to Varma even if the information has not changed. If we do not receive the residence report, we will suspend pension payment until the report is submitted.

Read more about the payment of pensions to other countries

If you have worked while retired, be sure to apply for the pension accrued from work by filling in an old-age pension application in Varma Online Service. If you were born in 1957 or earlier, your maximum retirement age is 68 years, at which time you can apply for your old-age pension accrued from working. 

If you were born in 1958, your maximum old-age pension age will be reached when you turn 69.