Topical issues

The earnings-related pension field wants access not only to data on earnings but also to data on benefits in the Incomes Register when calculating pensions. That is why the Tax Administration Incomes Register Unit has been given the assignment to examine within the next few years whether an earnings basis can be added to the data content of the Incomes Register.

People on a partial old-age pension more often retire on a full-time old-age pension as soon as they reach their retirement age than do those who are not drawing a partial old-age pension. The same applies to those who draw the former part-time pension. People on an early pension also less often continue working until their target retirement age, a study by the Finnish Centre for Pensions reveals.

Working in two or several EU Member States as a civil servant and as an employee or a self-employed person means that the social security of the person working abroad is transferred to the country where the work as a civil servant is done. This also applies to situations in which the person works remotely in Finland as a civil servant for a foreign employer.

In all European countries, people continue working longer than before. Yet the low-educated exit the labour market earlier than the high-educated. In Finland, the effective exit age, that is, the age at which people leave the labour market, has increased relatively much.

The second corona year proved very favourable for pension investors, with an average nominal return on pension investments of 15.8 per cent and a real return of 11.9 per cent. The total assets rose to 256 billion euros. Good solvency safeguards pensions also in volatile global situations.

The winner of the 2021 Pro Gradu Award, Heidi Tuohimaa (M.Soc.Sc., University of Lapland), examined in her thesis the news coverage of earnings-related pension insurance companies and the related framework in Finland’s largest daily paper Helsingin Sanomat. Each year, the Finnish Centre for Pensions grants a Pro Gradu Award to a distinguished Master’s thesis.

Sweden, Finland and Denmark stand out with the highest effective retirement ages in a comparison of the Nordic countries and Estonia. Although Finns have postponed retirement markedly in the 2010s, they still exit the labour market at the youngest age. Icelandic, Norwegian and Finnish women spend the longest time in retirement.

How much has the retirement age of Finns and Nordic citizens increased? How does the level of education affect the labour market exit age in European countries? Attend our research webinar in English on 7 June 2022 at 14.00-15.15 EEST (13:00–14:15 CEST) to hear the latest research findings on this topic.

The Finnish Centre for Pensions has updated its short and concise booklets on earnings-related pensions for both wage earners and the self-employed. Both booklets are available in English, Finnish and Swedish. The booklets are available online and can easily be printed out as pdf files.

One third of 63–80-year-old retirees work or are interested in working while drawing an old-age pension, a recent study (in Finnish only) by the Finnish Centre for Pensions shows. Many retirees would like to work to get something meaningful to do. However, retirees find that their age might be an obstacle to working in retirement. The analysis based on a survey was published in the social policy journal Yhteiskuntapolitiikka.