How to apply for an invalidity pension

What is an invalidity pension?

  • An invalidity pension is a pension benefit paid from invalidity insurance. Invalidity insurance is a part of pension insurance. If you were an employee, premium was paid by the employer on your behalf, or you paid it as a self-employed person, or you paid it voluntarily, or it was paid by the State in certain cases.
  • The purpose of an invalidity pension is to provide the insuree with an income in the event of a reduction in earning capacity due to a long-term adverse state of health.

What is invalidity?

  • A long-term adverse state of health that results in a reduction in earning capacity of more than 40 % compared with a healthy person.
  • Your doctor has assessed your adverse state of health as long-term, that is, it will persist for more than 1 year as a rule.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

If you have several serious diagnoses, the assessing doctor will only consider the one decisive for the reduction in your earning capacity. Other diagnoses may increase your reduction by at most 10 %.

Am I entitled to an invalidity pension?

How do I find out whether I am entitled to an invalidity pension?

  • Your earning capacity has been reduced by at least 40 % compared to a healthy person (this will be assessed by the assessing doctor based on your medical reports).
  • You have worked for a sufficient number of years.
    The number of years worked required is determined by age:
    • up to 20 years – less than 1 year;
    • from 20 to 24 years – at least 1 year;
    • from 25 to 28 years – at least 2 years;
    • from 29 to 34 years – at least 5 years;
    • from 35 to 40 years – at least 8 years;
    • from 41 to 45 years – at least 10 years;
    • over 45 years – at least 15 years.
  • You do not qualify for an old age pension or do not receive an early old age pension.
  • Under specific conditions, a person who became an invalid during the period in which they are a dependent child may also be entitled to an invalidity pension (‘a juvenile invalidity pension’), but this is conditioned upon permanent residence in the Slovak Republic. You are not entitled to this benefit until you reach 18 years of age.
  • A person is also entitled to an invalidity pension if they became invalid during full-time doctorate studies, they are under the age of 26, and permanently reside in the Slovak Republic.
  • An insuree who becomes invalid as a result of a work-related accident or an occupational disease, and a person who became invalid while still a dependent child or a doctorate in full-time education who is under the age of 26 is deemed to have fulfilled the above requirement for the number of years of pension insurance.

Who assesses the degree of my invalidity?

  • Your state of health will be assessed by the assessing doctor of the relevant Social Insurance Agency branch, without personal participation, on the basis of medical reports and data from medical documentation. Making an application for an invalidity pension and the assessment of the state of health by the assessing doctor normally takes place on the same day.
  • The severity of your medical condition and its impact on the extent of the loss of earning capacity are assessed by the assessing doctor on an individual basis, based on the decisive disability.
  • The level of reduction of earning capacity per individual disability is listed in Annex 4 to the Act on Social Insurance (SK).

 

How do I apply for an invalidity pension?

Where do I apply for an invalidity pension?

You can tend to your pension at the Social Insurance Agency branch based on your place of permanent residence, where the relevant staff member will complete the pension application with you.

The branches and opening hours can be found here: Social Insurance Agency Branches.

The Information and Advisory Centre is there to help you find contacts in case you need to check how to do it in your particular case.

How do I book the time for making the invalidity pension application?

  • You can book a time in the Reservation System. There you can select a specific branch (office) based on your place of permanent residence. The Reservation System will offer you a precise date and time that is convenient for you.
  • Once you have booked a time in the Reservation System, you will receive information confirming the time, as well as documents required for making the application, contact details for the branch employee who will compile the application with you and whom you can contact in case of queries.

Book your time for making the application through the Pension Application Reservation System (SK).

Is it necessary to prepare for the application in advance?

  • First, you should inform your general practitioner (GP) that you want to claim an invalidity pension and bring them all the expert findings (those that you have not submitted and which the doctor does not have). The GP will need time to prepare your medical documentation.
  • If you continue to be employed by the same employer after the date from which you are applying for the invalidity pension, your employer needs to submit your pension insurance record sheet to prove the pension insurance period and the assessment basis achieved. So they can manage to prepare it, we recommend that you inform them in advance of the date from which you are applying for the invalidity pension.

What documentation is required for making an application for invalidity pension?

  • A valid identity card or passport.
  • A completed Examination – Check form confirmed by the GP.
  • Evidence of the completion of education (certificate of apprenticeship, school graduation certificate, diploma, or confirmation from a school of the period of study).
  • If you were born after 1963, you also need a certificate of completion of compulsory education.
  • If you are a man, you need a service member's identity card or a certificate confirming the duration of military service.
  • You need a pension insurance record sheet if you will continue to work. It must be submitted by your employer, so you need to inform the employer in advance that you have applied for a pension.
  •  Birth certificates of children, but only:
    • if you are a foreign national or if your children were born abroad and have not been registered in the special registry, since the information contained in the birth certificate may not be included the register of natural persons, and therefore the children’s birth certificates need be submit subsequently;
    • if you have taken the child into substitute care, you must provide the competent authority’s decision on the child’s substitute care;
    • in the event of the death of a child before reaching the age of 18, you need the death certificate or a statement from the civil registry only if you are a foreign national and/or the child died abroad and the child was not registered in the special registry, since the information about the death may not be included the register of natural persons;
    • if the child was in the care of another person or institution, a document proving the duration of such a period must also be submitted (only if you seek recognition of care or raising the child – this applies both to women and to men/other insurees who want the child’s care to be taken into account).
  • Documents proving periods of employment and the amount of gross earnings not provided in the Information on the status of the insuree’s individual account for the period up to 31 December 2003.
  • Employer confirmations of periods of employment before 1 May 1990 in countries with which the Slovak Republic does not have an international social security agreement.
  • In order for your pension to be paid into a bank account, please bring the completed and bank endorsed form Remittance of pension benefits to the pensioner’s bank account (SK).

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Other documents may also be needed, depending on what is required in your case (an employee of the Social Insurance Agency branch can advise you).
Please, check your periods of employment and information about your social insurance via Electronic Account of an Insuree (EUP): Electronic Account of an Insuree.

How do I know whether the Social Insurance Agency has records of all my periods of employment?

​​​​To check which pension insurance periods you have recorded, please visit your Electronic Account of an Insuree (EUP). In the pension insurance section (Dôchodkové poistenie), you can check the individual periods of your pension insurance and thus verify whether all periods are registered here for your pension.

You can also check the record of pension insurance periods by requesting an The EUP Statement (Výpis z EUP) via:

How will the application be made?

  • You must be present at the specific time and period agreed in advance at the Social Insurance Agency branch at your place of permanent residence.
  • Submit all documents that you have prepared in advance which are required for making your application.
  • The relevant employee of the Social Insurance Agency branch will draw up a Record of a claim for invalidity pension with you.
  • Then the Social Insurance Agency branch will contact your GP to ask them to fill in the Examination – Check form and your doctor will prepare everything necessary for assessing your health condition.
  • Using the form completed by your GP, the Social Insurance Agency’s assessing doctor will assess your percentage reduction in earning capacity (under Act No 461/2003 on social insurance, Annex 4, which precisely defines the diagnosis, degree of disability and the percentage reduction).
  • In general, the assessment of health condition and making the application for a pension take place on the same day. We will send you a request to complete an application for an invalidity pension, specifying the place, the time (date and hour) and the list of documents.
  • A Social Insurance Agency branch employee will complete the electronic Pension Application Form with you on the basis of the documents and declarations submitted.
  • By signing, you confirm that all the details in your application are correct.

When will I find out if my pension has been awarded?

  • The time limit for deciding on a pension is 60 days.
  • This period runs from the date when the application for a pension is completed (pension procedure).
  • You will receive the decision on your pension by post or in an e-mailbox if one has been activated.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: In complex cases, the time limit may be extended by up to 60 days; however, the Social Insurance Agency will inform you about this in writing.

Your invalidity pension may also be paid in advance, but only if the conditions for entitlement to a basis for invalidity pension are met; however, some facts that are necessary for determining the pension need to be ascertained before the decision on awarding the pension is taken.

What does the amount of my pension depend on?

  • The length of the pension insurance period achieved.
  • The period between the entitlement to an invalidity pension and the age of retirement is added to the pension insurance period, which was completed before the occurrence of the invalidity.
  • The amount of the invalidity pension also depends on the determined extent of the reduction in your earning capacity (determined by the Social Insurance Agency’s assessment doctor based on an assessment of the health condition).
  • It also depends on the amount of the gross earnings you have earned in your working life (contributions the Social Insurance Agency are also included in the gross wage).

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: All necessary data are always collected during the specific disability pension entitlement procedure of the given insuree.

How will my pension be paid?

  • Pension benefit is paid monthly in advance always at a regular recurring date.
  • Your payment date is set by the Social Insurance Agency.
  • The pension benefit will be paid to you to the account you stated when completing the pension application.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Pension benefit may also be paid to your spouse’s account if you request it and have the right to dispose of the account and your spouse consents to this.

 

Can I also receive my pension in cash?

Yes, but you need to ask for it in advance.

How is a pension paid in a social services facility?

If you are accommodated at a social services facility, your pension will be transferred to this facility by a collective payment, unless you apply for another method of receiving your pension.

For more information, see the PENSION INSURANCE – EARLY OLD AGE PENSION section.