When should you retire on old-age pension?
When the time comes to retire based on your age and you are ending your career, you can apply for old-age pension as an earnings-related pension. Your minimum retirement age depends on your year of birth. You can choose when to retire on old-age pension at the earliest starting from the first day of the month after you reach your personal minimum retirement age. For those born in 1958, the minimum age of retirement is 64 years, and for those born in 1959, the minimum age of retirement is 64 years and 3 months. For a person born in January 1959, old-age pension may start on 1 May 2023.
Receiving the pension is conditional on your employment relationship ending. As a self-employed person, you can continue your entrepreneurial activities during your retirement, but your YEL insurance will be terminated at the end of the month before your pension begins. Voluntary YEL insurance is possible also during retirement.
Index changes at the turn of the year
During retirement, the amount of your pension is adjusted on an annual basis in January based on the earnings-related pension index. When you retire, the wages and income you earned during your career are adjusted to the level of the year in which your pension begins by a wage coefficient.
Example:
If you retire on 1 December 2022, earned income affecting your pension is adjusted by using the 2022 wage coefficient. (The increase of the earnings-related pension index from 2022 was 6.8 %)
If you retire on 1 January 2023, the earned income affecting your pension is adjusted by using the 2023 wage coefficient. (The increase of the wage coefficient from 2022 was 3.8 %.)
Read more about earnings-related pension index and the wage coefficient
Old-age pension from Kela
Earnings-related pension is supplemented by Finnish 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. Old-age pension for long-termed unemployed is possible for persons born 1958. You can apply for earnings-related pension and national pension using the same application.
Read more about amount and payment of national pension on Kela’s website