Pension insurance
The pension insurance is mandatory for the following persons:
- employee (with regular or irregular income),
- self-employed person, having compulsory sickness insurance,
- other categories of persons having permanent residence in the territory of the SR and taking care of a child or performing nursing;
- for the purpose of old-age insurance, a person receiving accident annuity until reaching retirement age or until being granted early old-age retirement.
- performing activities on the basis of Agreements on work performance besides work contract, and not having a regular monthly income,
- performing activities on the basis of Agreements on work performance besides a work contract, having or not a regular monthly income, if the person is granted the old-age, disability, retirement pension and has reached the old-age, disability, retirement age,
- performing activities on the basis of a chosen Contract for part-time work of students, having a regular monthly income, and being a student of secondary school below 18 years and earning more than 66 €/month and a University student below 26 years and earning more than 155 €/month,
- performing activities on the basis of a chosen Contract for part-time work of students, not having a regular monthly income, and being a student of secondary school below 18 years and earning more than 66 €/month and a University student below 26 years and earning more than 155 €/month,
A student can choose only one contract, on the basis of which he/she will have a right for waiver of the social insurance premiums, if the monthly or average income of this agreement will not exceed the set amount. However students need to inform the employer in writing about exercising this right and also file a statement of exercising this right with one employer only.
There are two forms of pension insurance scheme:
- 1st pillar (contributions to the state Social Insurance Agency, concurrent regime), which is mandatory, and
- 2nd pillar (old-age pension saving in pension management companies, capitalising regime).
An employee pays old-age insurance in the amount of 4 % of the basis of assessment (usually equal to the gross wage). The employer on behalf of the employee pays the old-age insurance of 14 % of the basis of the assessment of the employer. The total of 18 % of old-age insurance is distributed to the both pillars. Participation in the 2nd pillar is subject to one’s own choice for persons up to 35 years old. Leaving the 2nd pillar under the current legislation is not possible
- There exists also a 3rd pillar pension regime, which is completely voluntary and is meant as an additional old-age pension saving. Minimal length of saving in the 3rd pillar is 10 years and the minimum age of the saver to pay out the benefits is 55 years. Some employers might opt to partly contribute to these savings on behalf of an employee.
Pension insurance entitles the insured person to the following benefits:
- the old-age insurance (old-age pension, early old-age pension, survivors’pensions - i.e. widow’s pension, widower’s pension, orphan’s pension),
- the disability insurance (disability pension, survivors’pensions - i.e. widow’s pension, widower’s pension, orphan’s pension),
An insured person is entitled to an old-age pension if he/she has been insured for an old-age pension for at least 15 years and has reached the minimum age required for entitlement to an old-age pension (the so-called retirement age). The retirement age in the Slovak Republic is at present 64 years both for men and women. In the case of women born before 1962, the retirement age is also dependent on the number of children a woman has brought up.
If you are a mobile worker who has contributed to insurance schemes of various Member States (EU, EEA, Switzerland) during your period of occupation all records of your contributions are held in each separate Member State. Upon reaching retirement age, the periods of insurance in individual Member States are summed up and you are entitled to draw the appropriate proportion of old-age pension from each Member State in which you have worked for a period of more than 12 months. The proportion is given by the ratio of years of insurance in the given state to the total insurance period of the worker before reaching the retirement age. An insurance period of less than 12 months will be taken over by your final country of employment.
Different legal framework applies to workers who have contributed to pension schemes of states with which there exists a bilateral agreement on social security. (Slovak Republic has concluded international agreement with the following states outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland: Australia, Canada, Croatia, Israel, Quebec, South Korea, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (as of 1960; succession to Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan), Ukraine and former Federal People´s Republic of Yugoslavia (as of 1957; succession to Bosnia and Herzegovina Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia). The principle of territoriality is exercised here, i.e. the old-age pension is paid off by the state, on the territory of which the insured person permanently resides. A list of bilateral treaties is available (only in Slovak) at the website on the Social Insurance Agency.
The application for drawing the old-age pension is submitted through the authorised social insurance body based on the permanent residence. (If having permanent residence in the Slovak Republic, the application shall be submitted to the appropriate office of Social Insurance Agency to draw benefits also from other states of the EU/EEA and Switzerland and from those with which there exists a bilateral treaty). Hence, usually, only one application is required.
A new kind of benefit introduced by the Act on Social insurance is the early old-age pension. The qualifying condition is achievement of at least 15 years of pension insurance, lacking 2 years to reach the retirement age at most, and satisfying the condition of reaching the pension amount equal to 1.2 multiple of the subsistence minimum level for a natural person by the day of claiming the benefit.
Disability insurance entitles the insured person for the following benefits: disability pension, survivors’ benefits (widow’s, widower’s, orphan’s pension).
An insured person is entitled to disability pension if he/she becomes disabled, has accumulated the correct number of years of the superannuation scheme and on the day on which the disability occurs does not qualify for entitlement to an old-age pension or early retirement pension.
For an insured person who has become disabled as a result of an occupational accident or disease, the condition regarding the number of years in the superannuation scheme is automatically deemed to have been satisfied.
An insured person is considered to be disabled if, due to long-term poor health, his/her capacity for work is reduced by more than 40 % in comparison with healthy natural persons; long-term poor health means the health condition that causes the reduction in work capacity and that, according to the knowledge of medical science, is expected to last longer than 1 year.
If a mobile worker is considered to be disabled by the legal regulations of the Slovak Republic, but has not accumulated the correct number of years of the superannuation scheme to be entitled for the invalidity benefit in the Slovak Republic, the periods of insurance in individual Member States (EU, EEA, Switzerland; states with which there exists a bilateral agreement on social security) are taken into consideration and are aggregated. The insurance periods are figured in only on the basis of an official confirmation by the relevant national authority (e.g. a social insurance company); where European coordination regulations apply, portable document P1 is required (former E205 form).
Survivors’ pension insurance includes widow’s pension, widower’s pension and orphan’s pension.
Widow’s pension represents 60 % of the insured deceased person’s pension. Those entitled to this kind of benefit are the widow whose husband was receiving the old-age pension, the early old-age pension or the invalidity pension as of the day of his death, or satisfied conditions of the old-age pension entitlement as of the day of his death, or achieved the number of years of the pension insurance necessary to qualify to the invalidity pension as of the day of his death, or died due to the working injury or the occupational disease. The entitlement ceases:
- on contracting of marriage,
- on the day, validated by a court ruling, according to which the widow caused the death of her husband by a willful criminal act.
Widower’s pension represents 60 % of the insured deceased person’s pension. Those entitled to this kind of benefit are the widower whose wife was receiving the old-age pension, the early old-age pension or the invalidity pension as of the day of her death, or satisfied conditions of the old-age pension entitlement as of the day of her death, or achieved the number of years of the pension insurance necessary to qualify to the invalidity pension as of the day of her death, or died due to the working injury or the occupational disease. The entitlement ceases:
- on contracting of marriage,
- on the day, validated by a court ruling, according to which the widower caused the death of his wife by a willful criminal act.
Those entitled to an orphan’s pension are the dependent child after a deceased parent or an adopter who as of the day of his/her death was receiving the old-age pension, early old-age pension or invalidity pension, or as of the day of his/her death completed the number of pension insurance years to qualify to the invalidity pension, or qualified to old-age pension or died due to a working injury or an occupational disease.
The amount of orphan’s pension represents: 40 % of the insured deceased parent/adopter’s old-age or invalidity pension to which the deceased parent/adopter was entitled or would be entitled; or 40 % of the insured deceased parent/adopter’s early old-age pension to which the deceased person was entitled by the day of his/her death.
The entitlement to orphan pension ceases on reaching the age of 26 years of the dependent child; or on the day, validated by a court, ruling according to which the dependent child caused the death of his/her parent or adopter.