Amendment approved by Parliament: partial early old-age pension granted before 1 May 2026 does not affect general social security benefit

Parliament has approved an amendment to the Act on General Social Security Benefit. After the amendment enters into force, a partial early old-age pension granted before 1 May 2026 will not have an effect on the amount of payable general social security benefit (yleistuki).

However, a partial early old-age pension granted on or after 1 May 2026 will still count as income in the means test for the general social security benefit even after the change.

Kela to pay more general social security benefit retroactively to some customers

Kela began paying a new benefit called the general social security benefit to the unemployed on 1 May 2026. The benefit replaced labour market subsidy (työmarkkinatuki) and basic unemployment allowance (peruspäiväraha).

General social security benefit is a means-tested benefit. This means that capital income and other income that is not earned income may affect the amount of general social security benefit paid to a customer. According to the Act on General Social Security Benefit, a partial early old-age pension is taken into account as income in the means test for the general social security benefit. This means that it can reduce the amount of benefit payable to a customer.

The amendment to the Act on General Social Security Benefit that has now been approved by Parliament will apply retroactively as from 1 May 2026. As a result of the change, Kela will retroactively pay customers affected by the change the amount of unpaid general social security benefit that has accrued as from 1 May 2026.

Some unemployed customers also paid partial early old-age pension

When a customer is paid a partial early old-age pension, this means that the customer is paid part of their accrued earnings-related pension before they have reached their actual retirement age for an old-age pension.

Before the Act on General Social Security Benefit entered into force on 1 May 2026, a partial early old-age pension did not reduce the amount of Kela-paid basic unemployment allowance or that of labour market subsidy paid to recipients aged 55 or over if the recipient fulfilled the work requirement when they became unemployed.

Based on this, some Kela customers made the decision to transition to a partial early old-age pension before the Act on General Social Security Benefit entered into force because they did not know that their pension could reduce their general social security benefit through the means testing that applies to the benefit. The purpose of the transitional provision now approved by Parliament is to offer better financial security for these customers during their unemployment.

The amendment applies to pensions granted before 1 May 2026

The change will affect unemployed Kela customers who were issued a decision on their partial early old-age pension before 1 May 2026.

If a customer was granted a partial early old-age pension before 1 May 2026 and Kela has taken their pension into account in the means test for their general social security benefit, Kela will retroactively amend its past decision on the general social security benefit payable to the customer and pay the amount of unpaid benefit that has accrued since 1 May 2026 to the customer.

Kela will retroactively pay the amount of unpaid general social security benefit accrued since 1 May 2026 as a one-off payment to the affected customers within 2 business days of issuing an amended decision.

Once Kela has amended its decision, the partial early old-age pension of the affected customers will not affect any future payments of their general social security benefit either.

Customers do not need to contact Kela

Customers do not need to do anything or contact Kela’s customer service. Customers can visit the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish) to see when Kela has issued its amended decision and when they will get their general social security benefit.

Read more

• Ministry of Social Affairs and Health:Partial early old-age pension’s impact on the means test for the general social security benefit (in Finnish, stm.fi)
• Kela: Kela to begin paying general social security benefit to the unemployed (kela.fi)
• Kela: General social security benefit during unemployment (kela.fi)