Apply for pension online
Log in using banking codes or a mobile certificate.
Digital application and decision speed up the process
Before applying for pension, you can estimate the amount of your pension in our online service.
Check this page for your eligibility to receive pension. You should also check what other information is required for completing your application (besides your IBAN account number).
Fill in the electronic application. Check when is the right time to submit an application.
You can apply for both earnings-related and national pension at the same time. Are you eligible for national pension? Check whether you would also be eligible to receive pension from KELA. If an illness is making it difficult for you to continue working, consider applying for rehabilitation.
Is your employee about to retire? What should the employer do? (pdf).
In most cases, old-age pension applications are processed within two or three weeks. Applying for a disability pension usually takes longer.
If you have lived or worked in an EU or EEA member state, Switzerland or a social security agreement country, submit the application in Varma’s eServices at the earliest six months before pension starts. If you have lived or worked in a country other than the ones mentioned above, apply for pension directly in the country in question.
Regardless of the country you have lived or worked in, always fill in the Appendix U, Residence and Employment Abroad, by logging in into our eServices. Note! The Appendix U must be filled in even if you did not apply for pension work carried out abroad because its information is used in determining the effects that your residence abroad has on your earnings-related pension and national pension.
Following the pension reform in 2017, your pension will accrue at 1.5%/year. In addition your pension will increase by 0.4%/deferred month if you continue to work after turning 63.
You can retire on old-age pension at your discretion at any time between the ages of 63 and 68. Discuss retirement matters at your workplace, say, in a personal development discussion.
The pension begins after the end of the employment relationship at the earliest at the beginning of the month following the month in which you turn 63.
If you are between the ages of 53 and 62 your pension will accrue at a rate of 1.7%/year and at a rate of 1.5%/year after you turn 63. In addition your pension will increase by 0.4%/deferred month if you continue to work after turning 63.
You can retire on old-age pension at any time you wish between the upper and lower retirement age limits. The impact of the increase for deferred retirement (0.4%/year as of 2017) based on the pension reform at the target pension age would be equal to the reduction resulting from the life expectancy coefficient at the minimum retirement age.
Discuss retirement matters at your workplace, say, in a personal development discussion.
The pension begins after the end of the employment relationship at the earliest at the beginning of the month following the month in which you reach the minimum retirement age.
Your pension will be paid into your account after the decision has been sent. In future, the pension will be paid into your account on the first banking day of each month.
The employee pension card that entitles you to pensioner discounts will arrive at your home address within around 2 weeks of the decision. You can also save your electronic employee pension card on your smart phone.
You may take on work after you have retired. Working while on a pension accrues pension at a rate of 1.5% per year until your maximum reitrement age without an income limit.
If you become unemployed, the daily unemployment allowance will secure your income for at most 500 days, i.e. approximately two years. Someone who is elderly and becomes unemployed can receive the daily allowance for a longer period of time, for so-called additional days, until the age of 65 at the most.
A person born in 1957-1960 must be 61 years old in order to receive additional days of unemployment allowance once the 500-day period of compensation has been reached. In addition, the employee must have performed pension-insured work for at least five of the last 20 years. Self-employed persons are not entitled to additional days of unemployment allowance.
Please note that when you decide to retire on full old-age pension, you must apply for it separately.
Always find out about the possibility of rehabilitation first. Calculate an estimate of your rehabilitation allowance and pension online.
You can think about applying for disability pension 2 - 3 months before your period of receiving daily sickness allowance ends, when you have discussed your return to work, rehabilitation and retirement with your doctor and
Also think about whether you should apply for partial disability pension.
Before applying for pension you need a Medical Statement B, including an opinion on your workability. You can send us the statement (permitted filename extensions: pdf, jpg, jpeg, jpe, tif, tiff, png) when you fill in the electronic pension application.
If your earnings-related pension is small, you can also apply for national pension at the same time. If you are granted full disability pension, the pension will usually begin after you have received daily sickness allowance for 300 days, i.e. approximately one year after the illness began.
If you need to apply for a continuation of fixed-term rehabilitation allowance, send us a new medical statement B one month before the allowance ends. You are not required to file a new pension application.
What information do you need when filling in an application? See the checklist
Do you go back to work? Begin rehabilitation? Or should you appeal the decision?
Those who have reached their lowest age of retirement can apply for old-age pension. If you meet the conditions for the years-of-service pension you can apply for it.
You can apply for years-of-service pension if you were born in 1957 (and not yet 63 years 9 months old) or in 1958. If you are unsure of how much pension you have accrued, you can ask our advisory services for an estimate of the amount of your years-of-service pension. Follow these steps:
A person born in 1957-1958 can now opt for years-of-service pension.
A person born in 1957 (lower retirement age 63 years 9 moths) can receive years-of-service pension for no more than 9 months and a person born in 1958 (lower retirement age 64 years) for no more than 12 months. The pension automatically changes into old-age pension once you reach your retirement age.
A common-law spouse is not entitled to survivors’ pension.
Apply for survivors’ pension as soon as possible but no later than 6 months following the death of the primary beneficiary, because, unless there is a specific reason, survivors’ pensions are not payable retroactively for more than six months.
Submit your application to Varma if the insured (i.e. the deceased person) received pension from us or if his/her employment earnings in the two years preceding his/her death were primarily insured by us.
See the PDF forms below to check what information you need when filling in an application. The fastest way to submit your application is through Varma's eServices.
If you cannot submit the application through eServices use pdf-applications in Työeläke.fi. Please fill in the form preferably on your computer screen, print it out and sign it. You can send in an application either by post to Varma, P.O. Box 3, FI-00098 VARMA or you can scan your signed application and send it in a secure email.
Spouse's pension application (pdf).
Orphan's pension application (pdf).
- Information for pension applicants (pdf).
Residence and employment abroad, appendix U (pdf).
Send an encrypted message at the address https://turvaposti.varma.fi
Working abroad may influence your earnings-related pension amount. Residence abroad is taken into account when calculating Kela’s national pension. Pension paid for work carried out abroad may influence your other benefits, such as the unemployment allowance. For more information about the effects of foreign pension, contact your pension or benefit provider.
Read online or print out a brochure that provides you with information about pensions.
Waiting for a pension decision can seem to take a long time. You can follow the processing of your application on our web service.
The average processing time for old-age pension is about five days. Submitting the application earlier will not expedite the process; we will be able to make a decision only after we have received the final, actual pay information from the Incomes Register. For this reason, you should not apply until two weeks before the start of the pension. If you have been working abroad, the processing takes longer than average.
The processing time for early old-age pension is about three days.
The processing of a disability pension application takes about five weeks on average. It is advisable to submit your pension application 2–3 months before the end of the 300-day sickness allowance period. You will more likely receive a pension decision from us before the payment of your daily sickness allowance ends.
A survivors’ pension decision is normally made within less than three weeks. It is possible to follow the processing of a surviving spouse's pension application online.
Please note that it may take longer than usual to process the application if we have to wait for additional information that is required to make a decision.
If you have received a decision concerning your pension on rehabilitation from Varma that you are dissatisfied with, you have the right to appeal the decision within 7 + 30 days of posting the decision. If you have opted for an electronic decision, the appeal period is 3 + 30 days. If we cannot change the decision about your application in the manner you request, we will forward your appeal to the Pension Appeal Board.
The appeal must arrive at Varma at the latest by 4 pm (Finnish time) on the last day of the appeal period. If the last day of the appeal period is not a weekday, the appeal can be submitted on the following weekday.
If you are unable to submit an electronic appeal, please deliver the appeal documents to the address Varma, Muutoksenhaku, PL 3, 00098 VARMA or as a secured e-mail to the address https://turvaposti.varma.fi (the recipient being tyokyvyttomyyselake(at)varma.fi).
The fastest way to submit your appeal is through Varma's eServices.
Instructions for Appeal are attached to the decision and you should read them carefully before appealing the decision.
An appeal sent electronically must arrive no later than on the last day of the appeal period.