Flexible pension

You can retire up to five years before the retirement age, but in order to retire earlier than the old-age retirement age, you must have more pensionable years. If you retire before the retirement age, your pension will be smaller. If you retire later, the pension will be higher.

You can withdraw the pension partially, i.e., half of it, or stop its payment completely. The flexible pension system allows early retirement pensioners to receive a pension and salary at the same time.

In order to retire before the old-age pension age, you must have at least 15 years of pensionable service in Estonia, and if you retire

• up to 1 year earlier - at least 20 years of pensionable service
• up to 2 years earlier - at least 25 years of pensionable service
• up to 3 years earlier - at least 30 years of pensionable service
• up to 4 years earlier - at least 35 years of pensionable service
• up to 5 years earlier - at least 40 years of pensionable service

In the future, pension reductions and increases will depend on the time of retirement and the life table of Statistics Estonia, and the interest rate of European Central Bank bonds. This data is updated once a year on January 1. The percentage applied to determine the pension will not change in the future.

If you retire earlier or later, the pension reduction and increase in 2023 will be, on average, as follows:

• 5 years earlier -30.06%
• 4 years earlier -25.12%
• 3 years earlier -19.7%
• 2 years earlier -13.66%
• 1 year earlier -7.13%

At your retirement age, 0.0%

• 1 year later +7.85%
• 2 years later +16.50%
• 3 years later +26.08%
• 4 years later +36.80%
• 5 years later +48.76%

The data in the table is based on the forecast. The specific reduction or increase percentage is determined based on the year and month of your birth and the moment of pension determination.

Starting in 2021, if you wish, you can also withdraw half of your pension every month and stop receiving the pension altogether. This option is intended for those who already receive a pension but manage without a pension or with half a pension for a certain period of time and can thus increase the size of their later pension. The suspended part of the pension is not paid out all at once, but you get a slightly larger pension every month for the rest of your life. Future pension indexation will be based on the increased pension. The pension suspension multipliers are the same as the flexible pension multipliers.

The pension can be suspended and unsuspended once a month. For this purpose, an application for suspension-continuation of old-age pension must be submitted to the Social Insurance Board. Your desired change will take effect from the next calendar month. The suspension cannot be terminated retroactively.