Topical issues

Were you born in 1965? You can start drawing an old-age pension at 65 and a partial old-age pension at age 62 at the earliest. Your age group is the first to have its retirement age linked to life expectancy.

In 2025, employees’ median monthly earnings in Finland were €3,320. Women’s median monthly earnings were 16% lower than men’s. Recent statistics published by the Finnish Centre for Pensions shows that the relative gap in earnings between men and women has narrowed slightly.

The 2026 labour years ratio is 0.60. Compared to the previous year, the labour years ratio increased by 0.6 per cent and compared to 2005, by 5.7 per cent.

The revision of the EU social security regulations aims to update the rules on social insurance for people working abroad and the application process for A1 certificates, as well as to strengthen cooperation between the relevant authorities.

Finnish Parliament has approved a transitional provision under which partial old-age pensions will not be considered in the means testing for the general social security benefit if the pension decision was issued before 1 May 2026. Parliament broadened the transitional provision beyond what the Government had originally proposed.

An amendment of the earnings-related pension index results in an increase of around 52 euros for a gross monthly pension that is around 2,000 euros. Every year, pensions in payment are adjusted with the earnings-related pension index to help maintain purchasing power.

Are you conducting research on pensions and retirement? We offer you the opportunity to present your work at the third ETK Pension Research Forum to a broad international audience of pension experts, academics, stakeholders and policymakers.

Finland was again rated as having the most reliable pension system governance in the international Marsh CA Institute Global Pension Index comparison. Although its total score improved slightly this year, Finland dropped one notch to 9th place. The other Nordic countries also scored well in the comparison.

The earnings-related pension sector will begin accepting electronic medical statements at the beginning of 2027. After a medical appointment, the statement can be sent directly to the pension provider processing the benefit application.

Paid work is the main basis for pension accrual, but most people in Finland also accrue pension while receiving social security benefits. Pension accrued from these benefits is particularly important for people on low incomes.