If you are self-employed, you have to take care of your obligatory pension insurance yourself. Your pension contributions and your future pension depends on your estimate of how much you will earn from your self-employment. That amount is called your confirmed income from self-employment.
Your pension insurance for self-employed workers (YEL insurance) secures your income
- when you get old,
- when you fall ill,
- if you become unemployed,
- if you go on a parental leave, or
- if your self-employment ends because you lose your ability to work.
Your family will also get a survivors’ pension if you die.
You can choose which pension insurance company or pension insurance fund (if there is one in your line of business) that you want to insure yourself in. You cannot replace the statutory YEL insurance with voluntary pension insurance.
Estimate your confirmed income from self-employment with calculator
The calculator recommends your confirmed income from self-employment and its flexibility. The recommendation is indicative.
If you simply own a company, you cannot take out YEL insurance. You have to work in your company to have the right to insure yourself. How much of the company you own and different company forms also affect your pension insurance, even if you work in your own company.
Insurance from Mela
If you earn your living from agriculture or get a grant in the arts or sciences, you have to take out your pension insurance with the Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution Mela.
You are considered an agricultural entrepreneur if you are a
- farmer,
- fisherman,
- reindeer herder, or
- forest owner.
The insurance for farmers includes the statutory pension and accident insurance, but also the farmer’s early pension, the Mela sickness allowance, a group life insurance, farmer’s holiday and stand-in scheme services and occupational safety guidance.
If you are a grant recipient, you have to take out insurance with Mela if you meet the following criteria:
- your grant has been awarded in Finland,
- your grant when converted into annual income is 4,506 euros or more (2024),
- your grant is for postgraduate scientific studies or artistic work, and
- your work will last for at least four months.
You have to apply for the insurance no later than three months from when your work financed with a grant began. The insurance gives you the right to
- an earnings-related pension
- workers’ compensation
- certain daily allowances.
For more information, contact Mela.