Finland, research page
Eläketurvakeskus, ETK, the central coordinating body of the earnings-related pension field, which maintains its joint registers.
Pension insurance companies, industry-wide pension funds, company pension funds and special pension providers hold and pay the pension. It is administered by these, not by a state pension office.
The state social insurance institution, administering the separate residence-based national pension, the kansaneläke, and the guarantee pension.
The consumer portal produced and maintained by the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
One
Pension accrues at 1.5 per cent of annual gross earnings from age 17 until the insurance obligation ends, to 69 for wage earners, or from 18 if self-employed. Private sector employers must insure under TyEL all employees aged 17 to 67 whose earnings exceed the insurance obligation limit, which in 2025 was 70.08 euros a month. The Finnish Centre for Pensions itself says that because the limit is so low, pension accrues for virtually all gainful employment.
So a summer job, a season in Lapland or a six-month contract was work an employer had to insure, and the resulting pension sits with a private provider. Anyone who searched for a Finnish state pension and found nothing looked in the wrong place.
It is paid regardless of nationality and of where you live, and contributions cannot be got back, so the only way to realise the value is to claim it.
Sources: etk.fi, earnings-related pension benefits, etk.fi, pension coverage and insurance, wage earners, tyoelake.fi, pension paid abroad from Finland
Two
The earnings-related pension accrues from insured work and self-employment. The national and guarantee pensions secure a minimum income, living in Finland is a precondition, and the national pension may be granted to someone who lives in Finland and has lived there at least three years after reaching age 16. Kela states it in the same terms, and a Kela-paid pension does not necessarily continue if you move abroad.
So being told you get no Finnish pension is almost always about the Kela residence-based pension. It says nothing about the earnings-related one, which is a different system with different institutions and a different test.
Three
Nothing starts by itself. You claim with the appropriate form, separate for each benefit, as a rule a month before you want to retire, and from abroad three to six months before payments begin.
Finland does post printed records, from age 20 and three years after one was last sent or last viewed online, but the sender is the pension provider that insured your work at the end of the previous year. Someone who left years ago has no provider that insured their work at the end of the previous year, so the prompting mechanism is built around people still inside the system.
Sources: tyoelake.fi, briefly on claiming, tyoelake.fi, pension record
The insurance obligation is triggered by earnings above a very low monthly limit, 70.08 euros a month in 2025.
Retirement age is cohort-linked, rising three months per cohort from 63 for those born 1955 and later until it reaches 65, and life-expectancy-linked for those born 1965 and later. There is no single Finnish retirement age to quote.
A foreign pension might reduce the benefits you get from Finland.
Ask for the pension record, in Finnish työeläkeote. It is consolidated across the whole earnings-related field and covers all insured work throughout your working life.
The seven-year trap.
The printed record shows only the ongoing year and the previous six, while the online record shows the whole working life. A printed record requested by someone who left more than seven years ago can look empty, and that is not evidence of no entitlement.
Ask for your full working-life history rather than accepting the seven-year printed version, and note that the posted record comes only in Finnish or Swedish.
Have your henkilötunnus, the Finnish personal identity code, to hand. That is our own practical guidance rather than a published requirement: no official page states that it is required. What is officially stated is that the online service requires a Finnish identification token.
The published answer is that you can request the record from your own earnings-related pension provider, or by calling the Finnish Centre for Pensions on +358 29 411 2110. The Centre cannot yet process such matters using eIDAS identification, which will be introduced as of 1 January 2027. From that date, ask whether eIDAS identification from your own country is accepted.
The tyoelake.fi and etk.fi sites have full English sections.
Source: tyoelake.fi, pension record
You can claim from Finland wherever you live, sending the claim either to the pension authority of your country of residence or directly to Finland.
From an EU country, you claim from that country's authority and it forwards the claim to Finland with the extra information needed. The same applies in the EEA, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and agreement countries.
From anywhere else, complete the Finnish national claim form and send it to the Finnish Centre for Pensions or to your pension provider.
A cross-border claim needs an extra form named Appendix U, stating the country and date from which you claim.
Living permanently abroad, you must confirm your information yearly to the institution paying you. A stale address can interrupt a pension in payment.
Finnish Centre For Pensions Customer Service
FI-00065 ELÄKETURVAKESKUS
Finland
Copy it exactly. It has no street line, it is correct as published, and people who assume it is incomplete turn it into an undeliverable one.
+358 29 411 2110, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time.
Switchboard +358 29 411 20, weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The published channels are telephone and post. No email address is officially published for these matters.
Sources: tyoelake.fi, briefly on claiming, tyoelake.fi, pension paid abroad from Finland, etk.fi, contact information, international pension matters
These are the genuine stops.
A private provider, not a state pension office. The earnings-related pension is administered by pension insurance companies, industry-wide pension funds, company pension funds and special pension providers. The Finnish Centre for Pensions (Eläketurvakeskus) is the central coordinating body of the field and maintains its joint registers, and tyoelake.fi is the consumer portal it produces and maintains. Anyone who searched for a Finnish state pension and found nothing looked in the wrong place.
Very probably. Pension accrues at 1.5 per cent of annual gross earnings from age 17 until the insurance obligation ends, to 69 for wage earners, or from 18 if self-employed. Private sector employers must insure under TyEL all employees aged 17 to 67 whose earnings exceed the insurance obligation limit, which in 2025 was 70.08 euros a month, and the Finnish Centre for Pensions says that because the limit is so low, pension accrues for virtually all gainful employment.
No. Finland runs two separate systems, and a no from one says nothing about the other. The earnings-related pension accrues from insured work and self-employment. The national and guarantee pensions secure a minimum income, living in Finland is a precondition, and the national pension may be granted to someone who lives in Finland and has lived there at least three years after reaching age 16. A Kela-paid pension does not necessarily continue if you move abroad. Being told you get no Finnish pension is almost always about the Kela residence-based pension.
No. You claim with the appropriate form, separate for each benefit, as a rule a month before you want to retire, and from abroad three to six months before payments begin. Finland does post printed records, from age 20 and three years after one was last sent or last viewed online, but the sender is the pension provider that insured your work at the end of the previous year. Someone who left years ago has no such provider, so the prompting mechanism is built around people still inside the system.
Ask for the pension record, in Finnish työeläkeote. It is consolidated across the whole earnings-related field and covers all insured work throughout your working life: private and public sector employment, periods of self-employment, and certain benefits for which pension accrues, for example certain degrees or caring for your own children under age 3. It excludes work done abroad for a foreign employer, supplementary pensions from your current employment relationship, pension for a reduced retirement age, other voluntary pensions, or public sector work where you have the right to public sector supplementary pensions.
Because the printed record shows only the ongoing year and the previous six, while the online record shows the whole working life. A printed record requested by someone who left more than seven years ago can look empty, and that is not evidence of no entitlement. Ask for your full working-life history rather than accepting the seven-year printed version, and note that the posted record comes only in Finnish or Swedish.
The online service requires a Finnish identification token. Without Finnish e-credentials, the published answer is that you can request the record from your own earnings-related pension provider or by calling the Finnish Centre for Pensions on +358 29 411 2110. The Centre cannot yet process such matters using eIDAS identification, which will be introduced as of 1 January 2027, so from that date the eIDAS route is the one to ask about.
You can claim from Finland wherever you live, sending the claim either to the pension authority of your country of residence or directly to Finland. From an EU country, you claim from that country's authority and it forwards the claim to Finland with the extra information needed, and the same applies in the EEA, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and agreement countries. From anywhere else, complete the Finnish national claim form and send it to the Finnish Centre for Pensions or to your pension provider. A cross-border claim needs an extra form named Appendix U, stating the country and date from which you claim. Living permanently abroad, you must confirm your information yearly to the institution paying you, so a stale address can interrupt a pension in payment.
No. Retirement age is cohort-linked, rising three months per cohort from 63 for those born 1955 and later until it reaches 65, and it is life-expectancy-linked for those born 1965 and later. On coordination, a foreign pension might reduce the benefits you get from Finland.
Important Information
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