What counts toward insurance record for old-age pension in 2026
An expert from the State Social Insurance Agency explains which work and non-work periods form the insurance record required for an old-age pension. From 2025, pension eligibility requires age 65 and at least 20 years of record, while in 2026 the state social security benefit for old age will be 187 euros per month.
To determine a person's right to an old-age pension and its amount, the accumulated insurance record is crucial. Although this record is often called "work record", it includes not only employment but also several periods equated to work.
Under current rules, from 2025 a person is entitled to an old-age pension upon reaching the age of 65 and having an insurance record of at least 20 years. If, upon reaching pension age, the minimum record has not been accumulated, the right to an old-age pension does not arise. In such cases, if other conditions set out in legislation are met, the person may be granted a state social security benefit. In 2026, the benefit for old age will be 187 euros per month.
Liene Klismete, senior expert at the VSAA Pension Methodical Management Department, explains that when calculating the total insurance record, the time when a person worked or was in another period that constitutes the insurance record under the Law on State Pensions is significant. These periods are divided into three parts: up to 31 December 1990, from 1 January 1991 to 31 December 1995, and from 1 January 1996.
Until the end of 1990, work periods and periods equated to work are included in the insurance record regardless of whether social insurance contributions were made. Among the equated periods are compulsory military service, service in the Latvian army or internal affairs institutions, study time, individual work, care of a child or disabled person, periods of imprisonment and deportation of politically repressed persons, and others. Periods accumulated in the former USSR territory until the end of 1990 can also be included, but this depends on the person's status and several other conditions, such as the length of the record accumulated in Latvia after 1996.
In the period from 1991 to 1995, the insurance record consists of work and equated periods for which social insurance contributions were made or had to be made. For employees, a period is counted if the employer was registered as a contribution payer, while for self-employed persons only periods with actually paid contributions are counted. Equated periods in this period include military service, service in the army and internal affairs institutions, as well as certain study and care periods if contributions were made personally.
From 1 January 1996, the insurance record is formed by months in which social insurance contributions were made or had to be made. It also includes periods when contributions are paid by the state, for example, during child care leave, while receiving various benefits, and certain disability periods. The expert notes that full calendar months are included even if the insured period was shorter than a month, but if a person was not socially insured in a given month, that month is not counted. Working in several jobs simultaneously does not double the record — one calendar month counts as one month of record.
If a person has accumulated insurance periods in another EU member state, an EEA country, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, or a country with which Latvia has concluded a social security agreement, these periods may be taken into account when determining the right to a Latvian pension, provided that the record accumulated in Latvia is insufficient. The foreign periods must be confirmed by the competent authority of the respective country. At the same time, the Latvian pension is calculated only on the basis of the insurance record accumulated in Latvia.
