What will happen to my pension insurance cover if I move to England and start working in a local company there?
If you start working in another EU country your pension insurance is determined according to the legislation of the country in question.
Your pension rights are determined according to each country’s national regulations. So your pensionable age will vary depending on the country and your right to disability pension will be evaluated separately in each country. Also pension decisions made in different countries will vary.
As an exception, you can remain under the Finnish pension system if you work in another EU country for at most 12 months. In such cases the Finnish Centre for Pensions can provide you, at your request, with a certificate of posting as proof that your pension insurance is covered in Finland.
I worked in Sweden in the 1980s. Will this period be taken into account in my pension?
The work you performed in Sweden accrues pension according to Sweden’s pension legislation. If you worked in Sweden for a Finnish employer, your pension may have accrued, under certain conditions, according to Finnish legislation.
When you retire on an old-age pension from a municipal job, only work performed in Finland can be taken into account in your local government pension. For the period that you worked in Sweden, pension has accrued according to Swedish legislation. The general retirement age in Sweden is 65 years, and you can receive an early old-age pension once you have turned 61. Applying for an old-age pension can also be deferred after you turn 65, which means you will receive an increase for deferred retirement.
A pension from Sweden can be applied for simultaneously with the Finnish pension if you want an early old-age pension from Sweden or if only one year or less remains until you turn the general retirement age for Sweden, i.e. 65 years. Only one application is required. In addition to the application form please fill in the appendix U form on which you can report information concerning working and living abroad.
If you do not want an early old-age pension from Sweden or if more than one year remains before you turn 65, apply for the Finnish pension using the old-age pension form, without the appendix U. Include an appendix U form when applying for the Swedish pension at a later date. Send your application to the Finnish Centre for Pensions or your own pension institution, which will forward it to Sweden.
The processing of old-age pension applications takes around one year in Sweden.
I am an immigrant from Estonia. I have been in the service of a Finnish city since 9 November 2000. I worked in Estonia from 1973 to 1998. Will the period that I worked in Estonia be included in my Finnish pension?
If you retire on an old-age pension, you will only receive a pension in Finland for the work that has been covered by Finnish legislation. You will receive pension from Estonia for the period you worked in Estonia if you have accrued pension on your work according to Estonian legislation.
You do not, however, need to apply separately for the Estonian pension as Estonia is an EU country, instead a Finnish pension institution will forward your application to Estonia for consideration. You need to, however, attach an appendix U form to your Finnish application, reporting more detailed information concerning working and living abroad.
If you retire on a disability pension, your right to the pension is decided separately in both countries and the pension is determined based on the legislation of the country you are working in. For example the definition of incapacity to work varies in different countries. Even though, according to Finnish legislation, you had the right to disability pension, the opposite might be true according to Estonian legislation. A single application is enough also when applying for a disability pension.
If the earnings-related pensions from Finland and Estonia are very small, you have the right to receive a national pension in addition to the earnings-related pensions, either as an old-age pension or disability pension. The Finnish pension institution will forward your pension application to the Social Insurance Institution.
