Finland Parliament amends law on partial early old-age pensions

The Finnish Parliament has approved an amendment to the General Assistance Act to ensure that partial early old-age pensions do not reduce general assistance payments for individuals who received their pension decisions before May 1.

Previously, under the new general assistance system introduced in May, partial early old-age pensions were counted as income during means-testing, which could decrease the amount of support provided to unemployed individuals. This caused issues for those who had already transitioned to partial pensions without knowing how the new law would affect their benefits.

As a result of this legislative change, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) will retroactively correct assistance decisions. Kela will pay out the accumulated general assistance owed to affected individuals from May 1 onwards. The correction will be handled automatically by Kela, so affected persons do not need to take active steps to claim the funds.