Minimum age for farm closure pensions to remain at 56

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A working group set up to investigate the farmers’ early retirement aid system has proposed that the limit for farm closure pensions should not be raised from the current 56 years.
     On Thursday, Minister of Agriculture Sirkka-Liisa Anttila (Centre) announced that the preparations for the amendment to the relevant legislation are to be continued on the basis of this proposal.
     In connection with the dispute over retirement age in March, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) said in Parliament that longer life expectancy should “with time” also affect the pension benefits of agricultural entrepreneurs, who currently can retire already at the age of 56, as they pass on the family farm to the next generation.
     However, Minister Anttila stresses that the farmers’ early retirement aid is a political solution to improve the structure of agriculture - and not just a pension arrangement.
     The aim of the farmers’ early retirement aid is to lower the average age of agricultural entrepreneurs and to support passing farms on from one generation to the next.
     The minimum age of an individual giving up farming is 56 years, if the successor is a close relative. The minimum age is 60 years, if the successor is somebody else.
     
”If we want to have successors to farms, we cannot keep young people waiting until the current farmers are 65, which is why the farmers’ early retirement aid exists”, Anttila commented to Helsingin Sanomat.
     The task group looking into the farmers’ early retirement aid system proposes that the aid should continue predominantly with the current content from 2011 to 2014.
     The group’s memorandum was dated on February 27th, which was three days after the government had announced that it would raise the minimum retirement age from the present 63 to 65 years of age.
     According to Anttila, the group’s decisions had been made before the dispute over the retirement age began. Officially, the memorandum was presented on March 26th - a couple of weeks after the most heated stage of the debate.
     
The dispute over the government’s decision on raising the minimum age for old-age pensions has been transferred to a working group led by Jukka Rantala, the Managing Director of the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
     The working group is to find ways to raise the average retirement age by at least three years. The group’s proposals are due at the end of the year.
     
Minister Anttila points out that the farmers’ old-age pension system is now - and will also be in the future - be in line with that of the other population.
     ”This structural policy matter [Farmers’ early retirement aid] will not be affected by Rantala’s group. This is a separate issue”, Anttila notes.
     The legislation relating to the farmers’ early retirement aid is in force through the end of 2010.
     According to Minister Anttila, a proposal for the continuation of the aid system will have to be submitted in the course of the current year.
     Before submitting such a proposal, Anttila would like to have some preliminary information about the possible solution to be reached by Rantala’s group.
     
A typical farm closure pension is approximately EUR 500 to 800 per month. The pension will be reduced if a limit for additional earnings has been exceeded.
     The number of farmers receiving early retirement aid will be about 8,000 at the end of this year.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Poll: rise in retirement age sparks anger, but is no surprise (6.3.2009)
  Vanhanen heavily criticised in Parliament over retirement age (6.3.2009)
  Working party to seek solution to dispute over retirement age (10.3.2009)

Links:
  Farmers´ Social Insurance Institution (MELA)

Helsingin Sanomat