One million retirees on old-age pension within the earnings-related pension
scheme
Earnings-related pension providers pay out old-age pension to more than
one million retirees. The record-breaking limit of one million retirees on
old-age pension was reached in April this year.
Last year, over 80,000 persons retired in Finland, more than at any point in
the entire history of pension provision. The baby-boom generations born at the
end of the 1940s are now reaching the age of old-age retirement.
More than 1.4 million persons receive an earnings-related or a national
pension. More and more often, old-age pension consists only of an
earnings-related pension.
The majority of retirees are on old-age pension. Other types of pensions are
disability, unemployment and survivors' pensions.
Get a better grasp of your pension
Most people are interested to know the amount of their future pension. There
is no better source than the pension record. The pension record is sent annually
to approximately three million people in Finland. The electronic pension record
is available at any time from the web pages of your pension provider or here at
tyoelake.fi (in Finnish or Swedish).
The pension record displays
the amount of pension provision that has accrued from private-sector gainful
employment, self-employment and unsalaried periods.
Many have worked in the
public sector, with the state, a municipality or the Church as their employer.
Pension data from all public sector employment is available from the Local
Government Pensions Institution, including data from the Church Council and the
web or customer service of the State Treasury. A joint pension record for the
private and public sectors is planned for 2012.
Rate of disability pensions increases
The disability pension rate rose at the turn of the year, and a person
already retired may now earn up to EUR 600 without this having a negative effect
on the disability pension.
A recipient of a full disability pension may earn
40 per cent of the salary or income from work that forms the basis of the
pension. It will also be possible to leave the pension dormant, if the earnings
level is exceeded. The pension becomes payable again without a new evaluation of
working capacity, once the earnings level is no longer exceeded. The pension may
be left dormant for at most two years.
The accrual rate of the pension component for projected pensionable service
will rise from 1.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent, and in the beginning of 2010 a
lump-sum increase will be made to the pensions of those who have become disabled
before the age of 51. The increase is age-determined.
The life expectancy coefficient starts affecting pensions for the first time
in 2010. It concerns the old-age pensions of those born in 1948. It also
concerns persons whose disability begins in 2010.
Ways of extending working careers pondered until end of January
The work groups assigned to consider ways of extending the working careers of
Finns have been given additional time until the end of January 2010.
The pensions negotiation group of the labour market organisations and the
working life group were originally intending to present their results by the end
of 2009, but additional time was needed e.g. in order to get more familiar with
background surveys and negotiations based on these.
The aim of the work groups has been to find tools by which the average
expected age of actual retirement would rise by three years from the current
59.4 years by 2025.