What to do when your employment ends before retirement age

Unemployment allowance secures the income of a person of working age during periods of unemployment. Unemployed persons approaching their pensionable age can receive the daily allowance for a longer period of time, for so-called additional days. The pension granted after the unemployment allowance is usually an old-age pension. You can also apply for old-age pension directly if you have already reached your minimum retirement age when you become unemployed.

How unemployment affects the amount of pension

If you lose your job, register yourself as an unemployed jobseeker at the TE office no later than on the first day of unemployment because you will receive the unemployment allowance only if you are registered as a jobseeker.

If your work employment ends, your pension accrual on earnings from employment ends. Pension accrues for wages paid for the statutory notice period regardless of whether you work or not. However, pension does not accrue for any severance pay or corresponding compensation for ending employment.

For earnings-based daily allowance periods, pension accrues until the minimum pensionable age for old-age pension, but the level is somewhat lower than for periods of work. No pension accrues on Kela’s basic unemployment allowance or labour market subsidy. Partial old-age pension or surviving spouse’s pension do not affect pension accrual. However, no pension accrues on the earnings-based daily allowance period if you receive partial disability pension.

Find out the amount of your pension in Varma Online Service

You can see the amount of pension you have accrued in your pension record in Varma’s online service. You will be able to see the pension accrued from the earnings paid during the period of layoff and unemployment in your pension record at the latest in spring of the year after the benefit was received.

You can also calculate a new estimate of the amount of your future pension by selecting ‘Pension estimates’. Select old-age pension and a retirement starting date. You can add ending date of your employment.

For further information on earnings-based daily allowance, please contact your unemployment fund or the Federation of Unemployment Funds in Finland, and Kela for information on the basic unemployment allowance.