Pensions in Norway


Pensions in Norway fall into three major divisions; State Pensions, Occupational Pensions and Individual or personal Pensions.

State pensions (Alderspensjon)

All Norwegians citizens are entitled to get a state pension from the age of 67 in accordance with the Norwegian National Insurance Act. The state pension is paid in full to Norwegian citizens who have lived in Norway for at least 40 years after the age of 16 and in lesser amounts to Norwegian citizens who have lived less time in the country.
The State Pension is calculated according to what the individual has previously earned from ages 16 to 67. The calculation is made by The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration.
The financing of the state pensions is based on a "Pay as you go" system. This means that today's work force is making the payments for the current retirees. The demographic structure in Norway suggests that in the future there will gradually be significantly fewer persons working in proportion to each retired pensioner.
The state pension is divided into three different parts, Public pension base rate, Special supplement and Dependents supplement. Altogether this makes up the state pension scheme.
The Minimal state pension is a pension scheme which is paid to retirees who have not earned a special supplement or who have earned an Occupational pensions which is lower than the State Pension special supplement.
The minimal state pension provision is intended to prevent poverty in old age. All Norwegian citizens over the age of 67 are entitled to claim state pension, including Norwegian citizens who have never accrued pension, or those who have accrued a low pension.
Living costs in Norway are very high and have been increasing tremendously over the past few decades. Therefore, the Norwegian minimal state pension, which has been designed to cover the most basic living expenses in Norway, is adjusted each year to the increasing living costs in Norway.
Norwegian pensioners who have lived most of their lives in Norway and who are entitled the Norwegian minimal state pension are permitted to use this pension money in other countries too – due to this, many Norwegian retirees choose eventually to move abroad after they retire to countries where the Norwegian minimal state pension would provide them a much higher standard of living. On the other hand, Norwegian pensioners who did not live in Norway most of their lives and who are entitled the Norwegian minimal state pension, will receive the Norwegian minimal state pension only if they would stay in Norway for at least nine months each year from the age of 67.
For example, as of 2013 basic factor for single person, calculated is 14208 kr per month which is about 2,326 USD, 1,429 GBP or 1,689 EUR per month. To compare - a Spain which is because of the climate, proximity, union part often chosen by pensioners, have average Spanish worker earns of €1,615 per month, and minimal wage of 752.9.

Occupational pensions (Tjenestepensjon)

Occupational pension schemes are arrangements established by employers to provide pension and related benefits for their employees.
From 2006, all employers in Norway are required to provide an occupational pension for their employees.

Mandatory occupational pensions (Obligatorisk tjenestepensjon)

The [|mandatory occupational pensions] were initially introduced in 2007 to cover employees who were not already covered by pension schemes.
Many Norwegian workers have no other plan in store than the state pension scheme of the National Insurance. In order to change this, the OTP pension scheme was introduced. It is up to the individual companies to decide if they would rather choose a contribution scheme or a scheme based on the putting part of the employee’s salary aside for them to have at retirement.
The premium and the pension costs for the OTP pension scheme are paid in full by the employer. The minimum contribution is 2% of the salary funds. The employee can contribute, but this is voluntary. The pension scheme must be the same for everyone in the company who has an income of above 1G. It is not legally required for employees with an income of over 12G.

Contractual pension (Avtalefestet pensjon)

Contractual pension is an early retirement pension scheme given to employees of companies which participate in the AFP pension scheme through a collective agreement.
The scheme was initially introduced in 1988 when the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise reached an agreement according to which the employees would be able to get their pension from the age of 66 years. According to the initial arrangement, the employees which took part in this pension scheme were entitled to receive an early retirement at the age of 66 if they wanted it. Later, the LO and the NHO negotiated on a lower retirement age. This pension scheme retirement age is currently 62. Eighty percent of today's 62-year-olds in Norway are entitled to get this pension scheme. Initially this pension scheme was only meant for those who were working in the hard industrial jobs, but eventually more groups became involved as other trade unions and employers' organizations also joined this pension scheme. The state has gradually joined this scheme.
This pension scheme is received in addition to the state pension scheme.

Individual or personal pensions

It is also possible for an individual to make contributions under an arrangement they themselves make with a provider. Contributions are typically invested during an individual's working life, and then used to purchase a pension at or following retirement.

Historical pension arrangements

Pension Insurance for Seamen (Pensjonstrygden for sjømenn)

The seamen pension arrangement was established as a mandatory pension scheme by law on 3 December 1948, and its primary aim was to provide the pension for retired seamen, or their widows. Today it mainly covers retired seamen pensions between the ages 60 and 67. It is financed by fees taken from seafarers and shipping companies and by grants given by the state.
This pension arrangement covers:
Seafarer in this context includes some personnel in offshore- related industries, some rescue personnel at sea, and some groups of personnel on cruise- ships.

Public Service Pension Fund (Statens pensjonskasse)

Public sector employees are covered by the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund .

Army

The New Pension Reform

The Norwegian pension reform was initially announced in 2001 when the government appointed a special pensions commission. The commission which was led by Sigbjørn Johnsen consisted of both politicians and independent experts. The Parliament of Norway adopted the new regulations in the spring of 2009. The reform is scheduled for completion and would be fully implemented in 2025. The new regulations of the new "Flexible Retirement Act" have been implemented gradually since 2010.
The reason for introducing new regulations in the retirement plans schemes was to be able to maintain a sustainable pension system which would be capable of handling an increase in the number of retired Norwegians/higher life expectancy, while at the same time fewer children are born. The pension reform is therefore intended to encourage more people to stay for a longer period in the workforce after retirement age.
As forecasted by the United Nations, the Norwegian population over 65 years of age will reach a share of 25% of the country’s population by 2060, contrasting a 16% figure in 2015. In adherence to this assumption and if there had not been an effective reform to the National Insurance Scheme in Norway, government expenditure for old age pensions would have amounted to 13% of GDP by 2060, which is more than double what was spent in 2013.
Norway’s pension reform has enjoyed widespread public support as its objective to improve the sustainability of the pensions system in the long-run has derived in strong labor supply incentives to get citizens to work more and for a longer period while keeping essential features of the re-distributive nature of the old scheme intact. The reform is to be implemented gradually, but some key features were already put into practice in 2011, including: life expectancy adjustment of pensions, flexible retirement from age 62 according to actuarial principles, and new rules for pension indexation.
The new system incorporates some of the old system’s characteristics, such as:
While bringing in new attributes like:
While most countries reforming their national security systems rely on policy measures such as increasing the access-to-pension age, Norway has installed a scheme in which there is a reduction of the access age accompanied by a flexible retirement from 62 to 75 and life expectancy adjustments, lowering pensions as life expectancy rises –this incentivizes people to work for more years to reduce the impact of growing life expectancy in a scheme that conversely relates it to pension benefits. Nevertheless, and while the reform has been widely praised, there are some shortcomings pointed out by experts: the reformed system is complex and has no automatic mechanisms to adjust to future macroeconomic or demographic pressures, and it establishes a uniform annuity-conversion-factors-assessment that does not take into account the possible negative effects on groups with shorter life expectancy.