The leader of one of Finland’s largest occupational pension funds said it was obvious that the country’s self-employment pension scheme, YEL, needs to be overhauled, and welcomed the ongoing official effort to investigate it.
Risto Murto, chief executive officer of mutual pensions insurer Varma, said today: “We welcome the fact that the Finnish government commissioned an assessment of entrepreneurs’ pension cover.
“YEL, the self-employed persons’ pension scheme, is clearly in need of reform, and the assessment is important,” said the CEO, in the €64bn pension fund’s first-quarter results statement.
Varma said it had identified the challenges of YEL pension insurance, and the need for its development.
The Helsinki-based private-sector occupational pension provider said it was currently continuing the process of reviewing the income of self-employed people earning more than €25,000 a year, and whose income had not been reviewed in the previous two years – as it was obliged to do under the Self-Employed Persons’ Pensions Act (YEL).
Varma said it was scheduled to review the income of some 12,000 entrepreneurs.
In December, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health appointed Jukka Rantala, former managing director of the Finnish Centre for Pensions (Eläketurvakeskus, ETK), to map the development needs for the entrepreneurs’ pension system, in accordance with the government plan of prime minister Petteri Orpo.
The government said many entrepreneurs considered the current definition of YEL earned income to be problematic, difficult to understand and unfair, and that the aim was to map the problems with the current earned income definition, and find ways to solve them.
The investigation began on 1 January and is due to be completed by 30 November 2025.
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