Choices you make during your lifetime affect your future pension. You can read more here about how you accumulate a retirement pension.
Retirement pension from the National Insurance Scheme ensures that you have an income in your old age. Retirement pension is flexible and you may start drawing your retirement pension from the month after you turn 62. You can work as much as you want without your pension being reduced.
As a rule, to be entitled to retirement pension you must have had pensionable income and / or have at least five years of National Insurance cover, i.e. you must have lived and / or worked in Norway.
It is up to you to decide when and how you would like to draw retirement pension and how much you want to work while doing so. You may draw retirement pension from the month after you turn 62. To draw retirement pension before the age of 67, you must have sufficient earnings (site in Norwegian).
Use NAV's online pension service Din pensjon to check the earliest you can start drawing your retirement pension and submit an online application.
You may work while receiving a retirement pension (in Norwegian) without your pension being reduced.
The size of your pension is primarily based on your pensionable income. However, you can also earn pension savings on the basis of other benefits from NAV, for compulsory military service and for care work:
You can accumulate maximum annual pension rights of 18.1 per cent of 7.1 times The National Insurance basic amount (G) (site in norwegian), even if you have accumulated pension rights for other reasons
You can also accumulate pension rights based on periods you have lived in Norway. This is called the period of national insurance cover. National insurance cover is provided for periods when you have lived and / or worked in Norway from the year you turned 16 and up to the year you turn 66.
Retirement pension from the National Insurance Scheme consists of income pension and guarantee pension. The size of your income pension depends on the size of the pension fund you have accumulated.
If you have had a low or no income, you will receive a guarantee pension. This ensures that you receive a pension at least equivalent to a guarantee pension level. To receive a full guarantee pension you must have a period of 40 years national insurance cover. If you have a short period of national insurance cover, the guarantee pension will be proportionally reduced.
If you have lived in Norway for a short time when you turned 67 and are still living in Norway, you may be entitled to supplementary benefit.
Your accumulated pension is distributed according to the life expectancy of your age group. This is called life expectancy adjustment (site in Norwegian). If life expectancy increases, each age group must work longer than the previous age group in order to receive the same pension.
Life expectancy adjustment is carried out using annuity divisors (site in Norwegian). The annuity divisors are determined on the basis of the anticipated life expectancy of people in your age group.
Using NAV's online pension service Din pensjon you can calculate your retirement pension, see when you can start drawing retirement pension and how much pension you have accumulated. You can also see what happens if you only draw some of your pension or what happens to your retirement pension payments if you change the date you want to start drawing retirement pension.
How much retirement pension you choose to receive, and when you start receiving it, affects how much retirement pension you will receive. You may draw 20, 40, 50, 60, 80 or 100 per cent of your retirement pension.
Your monthly retirement pension will be higher the longer you wait to start drawing a retirement pension. Your pension may also be higher if you continue to work while still receiving retirement pension. You may accumulate pension rights up to and including the year you turn 75.
You may start drawing retirement pension from the month after your turn 62, if you have accumulated sufficient pension rights. You should apply for retirement pension (site in Norwegian) around three months before you want payment to start. It is not possible to apply for retroactive flexible retirement pension, and the earliest date on which you will be entitled to retirement pension will be the month after NAV has received your application.
The simplest way to apply for a retirement pension is through Din pensjon online service (site in Norwegian). You will receive a reply within a few minutes. If we do not manage to process your application automatically, you will be notified of this. You may also apply for your retirement pension using a paper application. Processing paper applications may take longer.
If you apply digitally, you can also apply for AFP in the private sector.
While you accumulate retirement pension, your pension rights are adjusted (site in Norwegian) annually according to the average wage growth.
Your retirement pension from the National Insurance Scheme is a life-long payment. Retirement pension will be paid up to and including the month of death.
If you are moving abroad and receiving retirement pension from NAV, you must check whether you can still receive your retirement pension (site in Norwegian).
If you have lived or worked abroad, you may be entitled to retirement pension from another country (site in Norwegian). You can also read more about staying abroad.
If you are receiving retirement pension and there are changes in your family situation, you are planning to stay abroad (site in Norwegian), or there are changes in the income of your spouse or co-habiting partner, this may affect the retirement pension you receive from NAV. In such cases, you must notify NAV immediately.
You may also check your payments on NAV's online pension service at Din pensjon.
You can check payment dates at NAV's online service Dine utbetalinger.
You may also check your payments on NAV's online pension service at Din pensjon.
Most of the information is available here in English. There are also links to other more detailed information; however, some of this information is only available in Norwegian.