Disability pension

Your income during a prolonged illness usually consists of sickness allowance that is applied for from the Social Insurance Institution (Kela). Kela can pay sickness allowance for a maximum of 300 days, i.e. for roughly one year.
During your sickness allowance period, it is possible that you have already discussed returning to work or the possibility of vocational rehabilitation with your physician. If you intend to return to work during or immediately after your sickness allowance period, apply for vocational rehabilitation through our online services. During your vocational rehabilitation, such as a work trial or studies, we will pay you rehabilitation allowance.

If the disability caused by your illness continues even after your right to sickness allowance ends and returning to work is not possible even with vocational rehabilitation, you can apply for

• fixed-term disability pension, i.e. the cash rehabilitation benefit

or

• disability pension until further notice.

We grant fixed-term disability pension, i.e. the cash rehabilitation benefit if, in our assessment, you are unable to work but your work ability could be restored with the help of treatment or rehabilitation. The cash rehabilitation benefit may last from one month to several years, and it can also be granted for several consecutive periods.

We grant permanent disability pension if, in our assessment, you are unable to work and your work ability is not expected to be restored.
The cash rehabilitation benefit or disability pension usually begins once your entitlement to daily sickness allowance ends. Besides assessing the disability, we also estimate how long it will last. The cash rehabilitation benefit or disability pension can be granted only after your disability lasts for at least one consecutive year.

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

If you have been working while on disability pension, you can apply for the new pension that has accrued on that work in an old-age pension application once you have reached your minimum retirement age.

If you are able to work part time despite your illness, you can apply for a preliminary decision on partial disability pension or the partial cash rehabilitation benefit. You can apply for these while still working full time, i.e. without having first been on sick leave.

You can apply for

• fixed-term partial disability pension, i.e. the partial cash rehabilitation benefit

or

• partial disability pension until further notice.

Partial disability pension or the partial cash rehabilitation benefit may also be a good idea after a work trial that was implemented as part of vocational rehabilitation if your work ability is still not sufficient to work full time. The partial cash rehabilitation benefit or partial disability pension can be granted if your disability lasts for at least one consecutive year.

You are not required to be gainfully employed while collecting partial disability pension, which means you can receive the pension even if you are not working. Partial disability pension is not paid as national pension.

Once you reach your minimum retirement age, which is based on your year of birth, your disability pension automatically changes to old-age pension and the amount of your pension doubles. If you have been working while on partial disability pension, you can apply for the new pension that has accrued on that work in an old-age pension application once you have reached your minimum retirement age.

It is a good idea to apply for disability pension roughly two to three months before your entitlement to sickness allowance ends. Fill in the application only after you have received a medical statement in which your physician recommends the cash rehabilitation benefit or disability pension for you as a continuation of your sickness allowance.

Using the same application form you can apply for disability pension, the fixed-term cash rehabilitation benefit, partial disability pension or the fixed-term partial cash rehabilitation benefit. If the amount of earnings-related pension you have accrued is small, you can also apply for disability pension in the form of national pension from Kela using the same application form. In this case, we will send your application to Kela.

If you have lived or worked abroad, you can also apply for your foreign pension with your disability pension application. In our online service, under ‘Residence and employment abroad (Appendix U)’, you must provide details about your time spent abroad, such as information about your employer and dates when you worked and lived abroad.

For your disability pension application we require a current (less than six months old) medical statement B in which a physician makes a statement concerning your work ability and functional capacity. If you like, you can also send us your other medical reports, such as patient accounts or rehabilitation feedback on completed rehabilitation periods.

A disability pension application is processed in an average of four weeks. 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.

You can see how the processing of your application is progressing in our online services.

Log in to Varma Online Service

At Varma, your application is processed by a specialist physician and a pension adjudication specialist. The assessment of your disability is based on the employees’ pension acts, according to which we assess your work ability and functional capacity for any work that is suitable for you. It is only once you turn 60 that the assessment of work ability is less stringent, meaning we assess your work ability only in relation to your current work and its demands.

Besides assessing the disability, we also estimate how long it will last. The cash rehabilitation benefit or disability pension can be granted if your disability lasts for at least one consecutive year.

You will receive a decision from us once your application has been processed. If you chose electronic service in our online services, you will receive a text message when the decision is ready in our online services. If you have not opted for electronic service, the decision will be mailed to your home.