Danish labour-market pension fund Sampension is urging society to do more to tackle the problem of poor mental health forcing young people into early retirement, although it welcomed a fall registered in 2024 in the number of under-40s quitting the workforce early in the Nordic country.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Norway, political parties have agreed to abolish mandatory early retirement for those in the armed forces and the police, citing the need for more people to stay in the workforce for longer — particularly for national security.
In Denmark, new figures from the Danish Labour Market and Recruitment Agency (Styrelsen for Arbejdsmarked og Rekruttering, STAR) show there were 5,892 new early retirees under 40, which is 380 fewer than in 2023 and corresponds to a decrease of 6%, according to Sampension.
The pension provider said this bucked the rising trend seen between 2015 and 2023.
Nicoline Rosenlund, Sampension’s head of health, said the early retirement reform which came into effect in Denmark in 2013 meant that people under 40 should not take early retirement, but that despite this, there had been a steady increase in young people doing so.
In 2024 though, she said, the number fell for the first time in 10 years.
“And it’s obviously positive if the decline reflects the curve slowly starting to break, and fewer young people reaching the point where there’s no option other than early retirement,” Rosenlund said today.
But the new data from STAR also showed that at 39,353, a record number of young people were in early retirement in 2024, up 7% from 2023, Sampension said.
It also revealed that 77% of all early retirement pensions granted to the under-40s now had mental disorders as the main diagnosis — up from 61% 10 years ago, the pensions firm said.
“Therefore it’s particularly important to solve the challenge of young people’s mental well-being if we’re to make sure fewer people retire at a young age in the future. And we all have a responsibility to contribute here,” Rosenlund noted.
Last Monday, the Norwegian government announced it had reached an agreement with labour-market parties on scrapping the mandatory retirement age for staff in the armed forces, as well as for other groups such as the police and prison services.
The agreement on new rules for early retirement for occupational groups with special age limits also includes an increase in the exemption limit – the amount of income that can be earned annually before the early retirement pension is reduced.
Tonje Brenna, minister of employment and inclusion, said: “We need more people to stay in work longer. That is why I’m pleased we’ve agreed with the parties that the obligation to retire will now be removed in the armed forces.”
This meant defence staff could stay in work longer than the special age limit indicated, she added.
“This is important in the security policy situation Norway is in,” said Brenna.
Employees who currently had special age limits constituted a workforce and expertise that was important in the future, said the government, which will now submit a bill to parliament, aiming for the special age limits to be abolished from 1 July 2025.
The government agreed the new rules with the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO); the Confederation of Unions for Professionals (Unio); the Confederation of Vocational Unions (YS); the Federation of Norwegian Professional Associations (Akademikerne); the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS), and employers’ organisation Spekter.
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