Many residents expect that when calculating the pension, Sodra will evaluate the entire accumulated length of service and contributions paid and calculate the pension correctly. However, there are cases when residents who receive their first pension are unpleasantly surprised. It turns out that sometimes errors occur, for example, part of the acquired length of service is not evaluated, which is why the resident receives a smaller pension than it should be. So, how to behave in such a situation.<\/p>\n
Vida (real name known to the editorial staff) from \u0160iauliai received her first pension, the size of which surprised her unpleasantly. The upset woman immediately thought that “Sodra” had made a mistake in its calculations.<\/p>\n
“I went to Sodra and explained the situation. They said they didn’t have data on some of my work and seniority during the Soviet era. They told me to look for documents.”<\/p>\n
Read alsoPensions will increase next year: it has been revealed exactly how much seniors will receive<\/a>“Sodra” reports: residents have not received 4,6 million euros<\/a><\/p>\n “But I don’t have anything from that long ago. How much I moved, how much I traveled, are they kidding me? How can I prove now that I worked?” Vida was indignant.<\/p>\n The news portal tv3.lt asked what residents should do in cases where they believe their pension was calculated incorrectly.<\/p>\n What to do if the pension turns out to be too low?<\/p>\n According to Malgo\u017eata Kozi\u010d, communications advisor at Sodra, a resident who suspects that their pension has been calculated incorrectly should file a complaint with Sodra.<\/p>\n “Most often, residents file complaints about the low size of their pension, the period not included in the length of service, etc. There are also other complaints about pensions related to their special types.”<\/p>\n “For example, regarding the right to receive an officer’s or soldier’s pension and similar cases,” the advisor said.<\/p>\n The interviewee added that not all complaints are upheld – on average, every tenth complaint submitted to Sodra is justified.<\/p>\n M. Kozi\u010d explained that the amount of the pension is always calculated based on the available documents confirming the length of service. Therefore, when a resident receives a smaller pension than expected, it is likely that Sodra did not have all the data proving the length of service.<\/p>\n A representative of “Sodra” explained that after a resident’s application, a process is underway to find the error.<\/p>\n If it is recognized that for other reasons (not related to additional documents about the length of service) the person’s pension was calculated too low, the arrears for the entire period are paid.<\/p>\n If, after examining the complaint and evaluating additional data, the pension decreases, the overpayment is not recovered from the recipient if the error was not due to the recipient’s fault.<\/p>\n However, if it turns out that the error was due to a lack of documents proving seniority, the resident is asked to provide them.<\/p>\n “If a person who has been granted an old-age pension submits additional documents regarding the length of service acquired prior to the granting of the pension, the old-age pension, calculated taking into account the additional newly submitted length of service data, shall begin to be paid from the first day of the month following the month in which the documents were submitted .”<\/p>\n For example, if a person submits additional documents proving their length of service on August 11, the recalculated pension will be paid from September,” commented M. Kozi\u010d.<\/p>\n A representative of “Sodra” reminds that it collects data on residents’ workplaces, the time worked there, and the salary received only since 1994. Generally speaking, “Sodra” does not have data on the length of service acquired before 1993. December 31.<\/p>\n M. Kozi\u010d emphasizes that the pension social insurance period acquired before 1994 can be proven by submitting work books or certificates of work experience.<\/p>\n However, it is important to emphasize that they must be issued by employers based on available documents, confirmed by the manager’s signature and seal.<\/p>\n In addition, seniority can also be confirmed by submitting copies of documents kept by employers, certificates issued by archives, copies or extracts of documents kept in them, military ID cards and other documents.<\/p>\n According to the interviewee, the original or certified copies of these documents must be submitted to Sodra by the resident themselves.<\/p>\n “If a person informs that they will not provide documents proving their length of service (e.g., they have lost their work book), Sodra may request these documents from other institutions.”<\/p>\n “In this case, the person must submit a request to Sodra for assistance in obtaining documents, indicating the period of work, location, and other circumstances,” the advisor explained.<\/p>\n However, she emphasizes that sometimes a person cannot prove his period of employment with documents because all or part of the documents of the company, institution, organization have not been preserved. In such cases, according to M. Kozi\u010d, the period of employment may be determined by court order at his request, as a fact with legal significance.<\/p>\n How is the pension calculated?<\/p>\n This year (according to June data), the average old-age pension with sufficient qualifying service is 807,2 euros. At the same time, the pension without the required qualifying service is 471,3 euros.<\/p>\n M. Kozi\u010d revealed that the highest old-age pensions in Lithuania currently exceed 2 thousand euros. 1,469 people receive such pensions.<\/p>\n “Sodra” reminds that the old-age pension consists of 2 parts: general and individual.<\/p>\n The general pension component depends on the person’s accumulated pension social insurance period and the amount of the basic pension in the year the person retires.<\/p>\n It is important to emphasize that the amount of the basic pension is indexed annually. Generally speaking, this amount increases every year.<\/p>\n The general part was increased by 9,9 percent this year. It is the same for everyone and depends on the amount of the basic pension, which is increased annually. This year, the general pension part is equal to 327,91 euros.<\/p>\n Thus, pensioners with both the minimum (15 years) and the mandatory (34,5 years) length of service are entitled to the same general pension portion of 327,91 euros.<\/p>\n However, if a person has more than 34,5 years of service, the total pension portion will be proportionally higher.<\/p>\n For example, for someone with 42 years of service, the total portion would increase to 399,19 euros (42\/34,5 years x 327,91 euros).<\/p>\n At that time, the individual pension portion is determined by the number of accounting points acquired. Their number depends on how many months the person has paid pension insurance contributions and on what salary.<\/p>\n 1 point is accumulated when a person (or their employer) pays pension insurance contributions every month throughout the year based on the average wage (VMU) established for that year.<\/p>\n If a person earns more than VMU, he or she can accumulate a maximum of 5 accounting points per year.<\/p>\n And the value of an accounting point is indexed annually and this year amounts to 8,11 euros. So, if a person has, for example, 20 accounting points, their individual pension portion will amount to 162,2 euros (20 x 8,11).<\/p>\n For example, a person has accumulated the required length of service and has accumulated 38 accounting points. This means that the general part of their pension will amount to 327,91, while the individual part will amount to 308,18 (38 x 8,11).<\/p>\n Generally speaking, such a resident will receive a pension of 636,09 euros (327,19 + 308,18).<\/p>\n Explained when pensions will not be paid at all<\/p>\n The Ministry of Social Security and Labor (MSSL) has indicated that the payment of pensions for the past time depends on the situation. Therefore, it is important to apply for pension payment on time.<\/p>\n If the person himself does not apply on time, that is, after reaching retirement age, it can be paid 12 months back. This provision has been in force since 1995, except for the period from 2018 to 2024, when this period was shortened to 6 months.<\/p>\n If the pension is not paid on time due to the fault of the institution granting or paying it, the pension is paid for the entire period without any limitation of time.<\/p>\n If a person wants to increase their pension without taking it, they can do so for 5 years, that is, by exercising the right to deferred application. In this case, the pension increases by 8 percent for each year of not taking the pension.<\/p>\n At the same time, M. Kozi\u010d reminds that if a person has marked in their personal “Sodra” account that they want to receive proactive “Sodra” messages, 6 months before retirement age, “Sodra” sends them a notification about the approaching retirement age and informs them how to submit an application for an old-age pension.<\/p>\n “We also inform monthly by text message and telephone those people who will reach retirement age in a year, but have not yet submitted data on their work experience acquired before 1994,” added the Sodra representative.<\/p>\n Next year – even higher pensions<\/p>\n “Sodra” annually recalculates residents’ pensions and some other benefits.<\/p>\n Back in March, the Ministry of Finance shared the country’s latest economic development scenario (ERS). Based on these forecasts, it is possible to roughly calculate how much pensions will increase next year. However, the forecasts may change with each new development scenario, and the latest one will be released in September.<\/p>\n According to the law, pensions are indexed according to a certain indexation coefficient (IK).<\/p>\n It is calculated as the arithmetic average of the annual growth rates of the wage fund for 7 consecutive years: the 3 years preceding the calculation year, the calculation year and the 3 forecast years.<\/p>\n The latest forecast was published by the Ministry of Finance in March of this year. The ministry predicts that pensions would increase by 8,51 percent from the beginning of next year.<\/p>\n “It should be noted that this is not the final indexation coefficient, the ERS will be published and in September, if the indicators change, the indexation coefficient will be recalculated.”<\/p>\n “The overall increase in social insurance pensions due to indexation will also be affected by decisions regarding additional indexation applied to the individual part of the pension,” the ministry stated.<\/p>\n Generally speaking, if the average pension currently amounts to around 805 euros, then after indexation next year it could increase by 68,5 euros and reach 873,5 euros.<\/p>\n It is true that the pension increases differently for each person, as it depends on the accumulated length of service and accounting units.<\/p>\n If widows’ pensions or single person benefits were also indexed by 8,51 percent, they would increase by about 4 euros – from the current 46,46 euros to 50,46 euros.<\/p>\n This year, pensions were indexed by 9,69 percent.<\/p>\n Author: Urt\u0117 Pangonyt\u0117, TV3.lt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many residents expect that when calculating the pension, Sodra will evaluate the entire accumulated length of service and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[93],"tags":[171,71133,71134,170],"class_list":["post-150541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vilnius","tag-lithuania","tag-pensijos","tag-sodra","tag-vilnius"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117138944513100748","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}