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Pension Qualifying Period

The pension qualifying period is formed of activities in your life like studying, raising children, and military service.

The pension qualifying period is divided into two:

  • Years of pensionable service until 31.12.1998, calculated according to the employment record book and documents (read more);
  • Pension accumulation period starting from 01.01.1999, calculated according to the social tax paid for you (read more).

The pension qualifying period can also consist only of the years of pensionable service, or of the pension accumulation period.

Years of Pensionable Service

The following activities shall be considered as included among the years of pensionable service (until 31.12.1998):

  • Working
  • Working as a self-employed person (provided that you paid the social tax)
  • Military service at the Estonian defence forces
  • Studying at a vocational educational institution, institution of professional higher institution, or at the university (full-time)
  • Raising a child until the age of three (to one parent)
  • Raising a child for at least eight years (for one parent, two years per each child)
  • Participating at an employment training through the employment office, and time during which you received the unemployment benefit
  • Taking care of a Category I disabled person, or a disabled child under the age of 18
  • Membership at artistic or trade associations
  • Working at a farm if the farm was exempt from paying taxes
  • Mandatory work when punished with a conditional detention, participation at corrective works without detention, or time at preventive treatment and work
The parents shall agree among themselves who will use the years of pensionable service:
  • For raising a toddler until the age of three;
  • For raising a child (8 years).

The agreement shall be evidenced by a written consent.

Example 1. Toomas and Hilja were not married. Both were in their twenties when they had a daughter Maarika. Toomas is marked as Maarika’s father on the birth certificate. When the girl was two, Toomas left the family. Today, Hilja is applying for a pension. She must add a written consent by Toomas to the application that raising Maarika will be calculated among Hilja’s years of pensionable service.

Example 2. Peeter and Liivia were married and had two children – Piia and Pille. Gunnar and Kersti were married and had also two children – Lauri and Laura. Years went by, lives changed, and Gunnar divorced his first wife Kersti and married Liivia, who had just split up with her husband Peeter. Liivia’s children from the first marriage (Piia and Pille), and Gunnar’s younger child Laura, who was 7 when her father got married again, were living with Liivia and Gunnar. Today, Liivia is retiring. She has got a written consent from Peeter that she can calculate raising Piia and Pille among her years of pensionable service. As Liivia has raised Gunnar’s younger child Laura for 8 years and been married to Laura’s father Gunnar during this period then, at the consent of both biological parents (at the consent of Gunnar and Kersti), she can add raising Laura also among her years of pensionable service.

Working and studying at the territory of the Soviet Union until 31.12.1990 shall be calculated among the years of pensionable service if you have at least 15 years of Estonian pension qualifying period.

The mandatory military service and alternative service duration at the territory of the Soviet Union until 31.12.1990 shall be calculated among the years of pensionable service, on the condition that all the following conditions are met:

  • You were sent to service from Estonia;
  • You have at least 15 years of Estonian pension qualifying period;
  • No other country is paying you pension for this time period.

or

  • Before and after sending to service from outside Estonia, you were living in Estonia;
  • You have at least 15 years of Estonian pension qualifying period;
  • No other country is paying you pension for this time period.

Pension Accumulation Period

Starting from January 1st, 1999, the pension accumulation period calculation is based on the social tax. The pension accumulation period is used to check your years of employment and whether you are entitled to receive a pension.

The pension accumulation period is not a basis for calculating the pension amount.

Example 1: If you have received a minimum salary for 15 years, your pension accumulation period is 15 years. If the social tax paid for you has been calculated from an amount smaller than the minimum salary, your pension accumulation period shall be less than 1.

Example 2: If you have worked half-time for 15 years and your salary has been half the minimum, your pension accumulation period is 7.5 years. To get a 15-year accumulation period on these conditions, you must work 30 years.

Last updated: 17.02.2023

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