Disability pension

You received a preliminary decision on your entitlement to partial disability pension or partial cash rehabilitation benefit if we determined that your work ability is not sufficient for full-time work. Once you receive the decision, you have 10 months to agree on part-time work with your employer.

The preliminary decision shows your pension amount and your earnings limit, i.e. how much you can earn alongside your pension. 

After you get the preliminary decision, agree with your employer on your working hours and tasks so that you do not exceed your earnings limit. After that, fill in your retirement notification in the Varma Online Service under ‘Pension applications’.

The pension can begin once we know, based on your notification, that your part-time earnings do not exceed your earnings limit.

You do not have to be working to be granted a pension. You can fill in a retirement notification and receive a partial disability pension also when you are not working. 

During a partial disability pension and partial cash rehabilitation benefit, you can work part-time within your earnings limit.

If you work as an employee, agree on part-time work with your employer so that your salary or wages do not exceed your monthly earnings limit. Note that the earnings also include holiday bonuses and other bonuses. For example per-kilometre allowance and daily allowance are not counted as earnings.

IIf you are self-employed, reduce your work so that your YEL income equals no more than your earnings limit. Your YEL income cannot be more than your annual earnings limit. Your annual earnings limit is calculated by multiplying your monthly earnings limit by twelve.

Keep track of your earnings so that you do not exceed your earnings limit.

You do not have to be working to be granted a pension. You can receive a partial disability pension also when you are not working.

Check your earnings limit in the Varma Online Service

The amount of your disability pension consists largely of two parts: the pension that has accrued up until the start of the disability and the so-called projected pension component. The projected pension component means the time between the start of your disability and the minimum retirement age for your age cohort. For this period, an estimated pension is calculated for your pension, increasing the pension already accrued.

More detailed information on pension accrual is available on the ‘Pension amount’ page

Estimate the amount of your pension in the Varma Online Service 

If you were below 50 years of age when you were granted a disability pension, your pension will be credited with a lump-sum increase five years after the pension started. The lump-sum increase will increase your pension and its size will depend on your age.

If your sickness allowance ends before you receive a decision from Varma, you can register as an unemployed jobseeker even though your employment relationship is still in force and you are on sick leave.

You can find the contact details for your local employment authority in Job Market Finland.

Remember to register on time, as you cannot register as a jobseeker retroactively.If you have registered as a jobseeker, you can look into your possibility to receive earnings-related unemployment allowance from your unemployment fund or general social security benefit from Kela.

If your work ability is not restored during the cash rehabilitation benefit period and your treatment or rehabilitation is still underway, you can send us a new up-to-date medical statement B. You do not need to file a new application.

Send us the new medical statement at the latest one month before your cash rehabilitation benefit ends. Based on the statement, we will assess whether we can continue the cash rehabilitation benefit.

When you apply for a disability pension, we assess your work ability and functional capacity in accordance with the Employees Pensions Act in relation to the work that you could within reason be expected to do based on your education, skills and experience. If you have turned 60, we assess your work ability primarily in relation to your work and its demands.

Kela may have granted you sickness allowance, having assessed you as unable to carry out your work or similar work.

When assessing your eligibility for a disability pension, however, we assess your work ability more extensively also in relation to other work that matches your health and competence. The pension application can be rejected even if you have received sickness allowance for a long time and your treating physician has assessed you to be unable to work.

If you have received a positive decision on vocational rehabilitation, contact your rehabilitation specialist. If your employment contract is valid, you can also contact your employer to plan your return to work.

If you do not have a valid employment relationship or your employer cannot offer you work suited to your state of health, you can contact your local employment authority to look into options for continuing in working life and your right to unemployment benefit. You can find the contact details for the employment authority in Job Market Finland.

You have the right to appeal the decision. Your decision will be accompanied by instructions for appeal, informing you of how you can appeal the decision you received.

Once you reach your lower age limit for old-age pension based on your year of birth, your disability pension automatically changes to the same amount of old-age pension. You do not need to apply for the old-age pension separately.

If you have been working while on a disability pension, you can apply for the pension accrued from this work once you have reached your lower age limit for old-age pension and your work has ended. You can apply for this pension using an old-age pension application.