Press releases

Most pension funds included in our comparison reached a real return of 10–20 per cent. The Swedish AP funds, part of the public pension system, performed particularly well, scoring highest in all compared categories. The year was favourable also for Finnish pension investors, particularly for Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company.

Nearly one third of all pensions in Finland are higher than 2,000 euros per month. Every third Finn receives a monthly pension of less than 1,250 euros. The gender gap in pensions remained unchanged.

Although the employment rate in Finland has exceeded its pre-corona level, the number of long-term unemployed has not improved. Many of those who lost their jobs during the pandemic are still unemployed. Focus should be put on the hard-to-employ, particularly those with disabilities and immigrants. A state-owned special assignment company Työkanava has been established to create meaningful jobs for people with disabilities.

In 2021, the number of new retirees on a disability pension declined by more than eight per cent. The decline was evenly distributed between the main disease categories. Mental disorders continue to be the most common cause for retirement on a disability pension. The single most common cause is depression – on average, it causes nine persons a day to retire on a disability pension.

Nearly three out of four employers state that working with typical tasks at the workplace until age 65 is possible. Yet, according to a new study by the Finnish Centre for Pensions, most employers doubt that working lives will be extended at their own place of business.

In 2021, the Finns retired on an earnings-related pension six months later than in 2020. The average effective retirement age was 62.4 years. Half of this increase can be explained by the rising retirement age and half by the surprisingly big drop in the number of new retirees on a disability pension.

On average, the wages of men increase by 3.4 per cent and of women by 3.0 per cent when changing jobs. Highly educated men benefit the most from job mobility. Women have surpassed men when it comes to the number of job changes.

Earnings-related survivors’ pensions were reformed as of the beginning of 2022. As a result, both the surviving spouse’s pension and the orphan’s pension were amended. The amendments do not apply to surviving spouses whose spouse passed away before 2022. Tyoelake.fi has introduced a new calculator that can be used to calculate the pension received by the surviving spouse and the orphan(s).

The most common age of claiming the partial old-age pension is 61. When viewed by age cohort, every fifth person entitled to the pension claims it – men more often than women. This is revealed by a recent study conducted by the Finnish Centre for Pensions.

Some Finnish authorities have ruled that platform workers (for example, food couriers) are employees while others view them as self-employed. The contradictory rulings are unfortunate as it would be important for both platform companies and platform workers to clarify the social security of platform workers. Employees are insured by the employer; the self-employed have to insure themselves.