Eläkkeet

Finland's pension system has two parallel statutory tiers:

• Employment pension (työeläke) — defined inter alia in the Employees Pensions Act (työeläkelaki 395/2006) and the Self-Employed Persons' Pensions Act (1272/2006). Accrued during your career, paid by an employment-pension provider (e.g. Varma, Ilmarinen, Elo).
• National pension and guarantee pension — defined in the National Pensions Act (kansaneläkelaki 568/2007) and the Guarantee Pension Act (takuueläkelaki 703/2010). Paid by Kela; depend on the time of residence in Finland and the amount of other pensions.

Buronia helps with Kela's pensions — national pension, guarantee pension and pensioner housing allowance. The employment pension is applied for directly from your own employment-pension provider — find yours at Tyoelake.fi.

• Old-age pension — usually starts at 65 (varies year by year by birth cohort; the lower limit for those born in 1965 is about 65 yrs 2 mo). Can also be drawn earlier from age 63, in which case the pension is smaller.
• Disability pension — granted when work ability is reduced for at least a year permanently. Usually applied for after the 300 days of sickness daily allowance.
• Unemployment pension — early pension for an older long-term unemployed person.
• Survivor pension — for a widow/widower and children under 18 from the deceased's employment and national pensions.
• Guarantee pension — guarantees a minimum total pension (in 2026 about €977/month) for any pension recipient living in Finland.

Buronia helps in particular with old-age, disability and guarantee pension applications. Survivor-pension applications often require more specialised work — for that we offer separate consultation via WhatsApp.

A Finnish pensioner's monthly pension is mainly made up of the employment pension you have accrued during your career, plus a possible national pension that supplements low employment pensions. The higher the employment pension, the lower the national pension — an employment pension over about €1,600/month removes the national-pension entitlement entirely.

If the total pension falls below the guarantee-pension level (about €977/month in 2026), Kela pays the difference as guarantee pension. For example, if your employment pension is €700/month and your national pension is €200/month, the total is €900/month. Guarantee pension would in that case be paid at €977 − €900 = €77/month.

This ensures that even a person who accrued small earnings receives at least the guarantee-pension level monthly in Finland — and does not have to fall back on basic social assistance at pension age.

If illness or injury is so serious that incapacity for work continues over a year or is permanent, you should apply for a disability pension. The typical path is:

1. Sickness daily allowance for the first 300 working days (about a year).
2. A Kela rehabilitation assessment.
3. If rehabilitation is not productive or not foreseeable, an application for a disability pension.

The pension can be full or partial: a full disability pension is paid when work ability has dropped by at least 3/5; a partial pension when the drop is 2/5–3/5 and some work ability remains.

Alongside disability pension you can receive disability benefit and pensioner care allowance. A low-income pensioner should apply, instead of general housing allowance, for the pensioner housing allowance, which is the benefit tailored to pensioners (Pensioner Housing Allowance Act 571/2007).

The old-age pension can be drawn at the earliest from your minimum pension age, which depends on your birth year. For example, those born in 1960 have a minimum pension age of 64 yrs 6 mo; those born in 1965 about 65 yrs 2 mo; those born in 1970 about 65 yrs 9 mo.

Each month you delay starting the pension beyond the minimum pension age increases your pension by 0.4% per month (4.8% per year). This is called the deferral increment. Deferring by six years raises the pension by about 35%.

If you continue working past pension age, additional employment pension also accrues (1.5% per year on employment income). In practice the calculation becomes: retire at the minimum age versus continue 1–3 more years and accrue a higher pension. The decision depends on your health, the meaningfulness of work and your financial needs — Kela's pension-estimate calculator is a good tool for comparison.

National pension, guarantee pension and survivor pension are applied for from Kela in OmaKela. The application should be filed about 3 months before the desired pension start date, so that processing has time to complete.

The attachments needed are: information about your employment pension (available from Tyoelake.fi), any details of pensions paid from abroad and, when applying for a disability pension, Medical Certificate B + a rehabilitation plan.

Processing time is usually 2–6 months, longer for disability-pension applications. If you are waiting a long time for a pension decision and your finances are tight, you can apply for basic social assistance as a bridge.

Once the national-pension decision arrives, also apply immediately for the pensioner housing allowance if rent costs are significant — it can be substantially larger than general housing allowance and is designed specifically for pensioners.