🏠︎ All about pension

All about pension

What is a pension and what types are there? How to apply for it? And when are you entitled to receive more than one pension? Find out all this in this section. The content of the section “all about pensions” was created thanks to the cooperation with the Social Insurance Institution.

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Old-age pension Early retirement pension Invalidity pension Widow’s pension Pillar II pension Orphan’s pension Other pensions

What is a pension?

A pension is a regular income paid by the state to people who have reached retirement age, have lost a loved one, or for various reasons cannot work and earn their own living.

Pensions are paid by the Social Insurance Institution (and in special cases by other institutions), and you must always apply if you want to start receiving them. It is therefore a good idea to keep an overview of the different types of pensions and find out what you may be entitled to.

What types of pensions are there?

Most of us think of the word “pension” as the old-age pension paid after retirement. But there are many more types of pension:

Old-age pension

it is paid after retirement age and 15 years of social insurance.

Early retirement pension

people who lose their jobs at an older age and cannot find a new one may be entitled to an early pension.

Invalidity pension

helps people who can no longer work due to health limitations (illness, pain, disability).

Widow’s/widower’s pension

after the death of a spouse, helps the survivor to ease the financial burden and loss of income in the household.

Orphan’s pension

for children who have lost their parents at an age when they cannot yet take care of themselves. It is paid to a dependent child.

Pillar II pension

old-age pension savings, which, together with old-age insurance in the Social Insurance Institution (Pillar I), is used to provide an income in old age and for survivors in the event of death. It is not compulsory. It is paid by the respective pension management company or life insurance company.

Retirement pension

These pensions are intended for police officers and members of the armed forces. Due to the demanding and physical nature of the work, they are paid earlier, after 25 years. This pension is not paid by the Social Insurance Institution, but by the social security bodies of the armed forces, which also pay, for example, the Disability Retirement Pension.

What does the amount of my pension depend on?

The amount of your old-age pension and second-pillar pension depends on how much money you have paid into the Social Insurance Institution. The higher your salary or business income, the higher your pension will be.

However, the growth is not uniform – whoever earns twice as much will not have twice the pension. The amount of the pension is determined by several factors (length of pension insurance, current pension value and savings in Pillar II). You can find out more by calling the Social Insurance Office’s helpline 0800 123 123, or calculate its indicative amount in publicly available calculators. The amount of the invalidity pension is determined by the Social Insurance Institution on the basis of a doctor’s report. Depending on the percentage of disability and the previous income of the disabled person, the pension is calculated using several formulas, which you can find on the Social Insurance Institution’s website under Calculation and examples | Social Insurance Institution (socpoist.sk) Orphan’s pension is 40% of the pension to which the child’s parent would be or is entitled.
Widow’s/widower’s pension is 60% of the spouse’s pension.

And the retirement pension, like the old-age pension, depends on the number of years of service. It is calculated as 37,5 % of the average monthly service salary, which may rise subject to various conditions.