Give your future pension a little thought

When it comes to pensions, there are basically two good pieces of advice, depending on how long it will be until you retire.

If it is a long time until you retire, it is important to consider how you want to invest the funds you personally can choose about, and whether you want to save anything yourself towards your pension. The longer the funds you set aside for your pension have to grow, the higher your pension will be. It is also important to compare the ongoing fees that the pension managers charge. Small variations can make a big difference over the years.

If you are getting close to retirement, it is important to work out how large a pension you will receive and to review the rules for drawing your pension and the consequences different choices will have for you.

Use minpension.se for an overview

The Swedish pension system may not be so easy to understand at first glance. It is often described as a triangle in which the base consists of the national public pension, the intermediate level is the occupational pension and the top is made up of private savings. Each of these parts works slightly differently, both before retirement and in connection with retirement. In addition, the funds in the different parts of the triangle are managed by different pension managers and the different parts also differ in how long pensions are paid.

This makes it rather difficult for individual people to obtain an overview of their future pension, particularly over time after retirement. This is why the government and the pension managers who manage and pay pensions have together created the website minpension.se. At minpension.se, all available information about your estimated future pension is gathered in one place. You can see your estimated future pension per year.

At minpension.se, you can get an overview and you can see what happens with your pension if you work an extra year or two, for example, or if you choose to go down to part-time work.

Occupational pension from the University

The occupational pension (the middle section of the pension triangle) depends on any collective agreement you are party to, and works in slightly different ways depending on the agreement. In the perspective of a whole working life, you individually are therefore likely to have an occupational pension based on various collective agreements after having changed employer.

The occupational pension for employees at Uppsala University is governed by occupational pension agreement PA 16 and is administered by the National Government Employee Pensions Board (SPV).

Now and then, the occupational pension agreement is renegotiated and the terms and details are adjusted. The most recent changes came into effect on 1 January 2024. These changes introduced an option of earning towards an occupational pension up to the age of 69 and greater flexibility in drawing the occupational pension. At the same time, the possibility of applying for a part-time pension was eliminated for anyone born in 1966 or later.

Information sessions by 15 May

One good way to get started with giving a little thought to your future pension is to go to one or more of the information sessions that are offered.

For example, in spring 2024, the University is organising information sessions on Wednesday 15 May, in cooperation with the Swedish Pensions Agency and the National Government Employee Pensions Board (SPV). These are physical meetings (at Blåsenhus and BMC). These sessions are in Swedish. You need to register by 14 May.

You also have the opportunity to book a personal meeting on 15 May with staff from the Swedish Pensions Agency or SPV, register personal meeting by 15 May.

Please note that information about occupational pensions is often divided up according to when you were born. Fundamentally, this is because PA 16 has two sections in which the occupational pension works slightly differently, depending on whether you were born in or before 1987 or in 1988 or later.

If you are not able to attend one of the information sessions on 15 May 2024, the Swedish Pensions Agency and SPV arrange other webinars and physical meetings that you can register to attend to learn more about the pension system.

Information on the web

Naturally, apart from the information sessions, a lot of information is available online. As mentioned in the article, the website minpension.se is a good place to start for an overview. Here all pension information that you receive by post and email from different pension managers is collected in one place.

Information about pension issues linked to Uppsala University is available on the University’s intranet. As the University’s occupational pension is administered by SPV, a lot of the information about occupational pensions is on SPV’s website. However, there is every reason also to look through the information on the University’s intranet, which includes details about the salary exchange scheme and financial support for pensioners and their survivors.

Both the government and all pension managers have their own information on their websites, of course. The government administers the national public pension (the bottom of the pension triangle) and you can read more about it on Pensionsmyndigheten.se.

As regards other pension managers, this is individual, depending on the managers you have chosen and the employers you have had. The easiest way to find the various pension managers in your case is to log in to minpension.se and update your information there. After updating, minpension.se contacts all pension managers to see whether you personally have any pension funds with that manager.

Anders Berndt