Topical issues

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.

The Finnish Centre for Pensions has been awarded a Certificate of Merit by the International Social Security Association (ISSA) within the ISSA Good Practice Awards programme. The certificate was granted to the Finnish Centre for Pensions for its web service that instructs employers on how to insure their workers in international employment situations.

The printed pension record posted to private sector workers contains information from only the most recent years. Data spanning the worker’s entire working history is available on the online pension record.

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.

Partial old-age pensions have been selected mainly by wage earners with an average income. As the retirement age rises, the pension cutting effect of the partial old-age pension increases. The increasing cutting effect of early retirement is already showing in starting old-age pensions.

Employer, are you employing a worker from Ukraine? Remember to take out earnings-related pension insurance for the worker.

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.