Retirement

Steps

1. Ask for your S1 form from the fund that pays your pension, if you have no Slovak pension.
2. Report your arrival and register your residence (sheet SK-SEJOUR-TOUS-001): as an inactive person, you must have sufficient resources and health insurance in Slovakia.
3. Have your S1 registered with the Slovak health insurance fund of your choice (sheet SK-SANTE-TOUS-001).
4. Check your taxation: the tax treaty between Slovakia and your country decides who taxes your pension; and if you receive an old-age pension, the Slovak personal allowance is reduced or removed (sheet SK-IMPOTS-TOUS-001).
5. If you worked in Slovakia, claim your pension from an office of the Social Insurance Agency (Sociálna poisťovňa) in your place of residence; if you do not live in Slovakia, at head office. If you worked in several EU countries, a single application is enough: send it to the pension body of your country of residence or of the last country where you worked (Your Europe).
6. Where applicable, also claim your second pillar pension (pension savings) from the Social Insurance Agency or your management company.

Documents

• S1 form, identity document, proof of resources.
• For a Slovak pension: identity document, diplomas or school-leaving certificates, military service record where applicable, children's birth certificates (if you are a foreigner or if the birth took place abroad), proof of employment, bank form for payment into your account, form P5000 for your periods abroad.

Costs and timelines

• 2026 statutory age (born in 1962 to 1964): 63 years and 4 months (born September to December 1962, no children), 63 years and 6 months (born January to June 1963, no children), 63 years (1963, one child), 62 years and 6 months (late 1963, two children), 62 years and 8 months (early 1964, two children), 62 years and 2 months (1964, three or more children). It falls by 6 months per child raised, 18 months at most. For people born from 1967, it follows life expectancy and is set 5 years in advance.
• Insurance period: 15 years at minimum.
• Minimum pension: reserved for people with at least 30 years of insurance (periods abroad included) and whose combined pensions remain below the minimum. 2026 amount: 145% of the subsistence minimum (€284.13), i.e. €412 per month for 30 years of insurance (rounded up to the next 10 cents), plus 2.5 percentage points per year from 31 to 39 years, 3 points from 40 to 49 years, 5 points from 50 to 59 years and 7.5 points beyond (Act 461/2003, § 82b).
• Early retirement: at least 15 years of insurance, at most 2 years before the statutory age (or after a long career), and a pension above 1.6 times the subsistence minimum (about €454.61 per month) (Act 461/2003, § 67 para. 1).
• Parental pension: retired parents can receive 2% of the income tax paid by each child who designates them in their return (first payment in 2026).
• Working in retirement: with the old-age pension, you can work without restriction; the early retirement pension is no longer paid if you become an insured employee or self-employed person, except for work under an agreement (dohoda) as long as this income does not exceed €2,400 per year (Commission guide; Act 461/2003, § 67 paras. 4 to 7).

Common pitfalls

• Coming without an S1: the European card only covers temporary stays.
• Thinking your years abroad increase your Slovak pension: they serve to open the right, but the Slovak amount is calculated only on your Slovak years.
• Forgetting small periods: beyond one year of work in a country, you are in principle entitled to a pension from that country (Commission guide).

What changes by country of origin

• EU, EEA, Switzerland: aggregation and S1 under European rules.
• British citizens (Scots included): each case is examined: either the Withdrawal Agreement (European rules), or the protocol of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement and national law (Commission guide).