The term ‘self-employed’ is used here as applied in common discourse – a person who works for him or herself and who may be on his/her own or employs other persons.
These are the key elements on which your pension is based:
| Born between 1956 and 1958 | |
| Your Retirement Age | 63 years. |
| SS Contributions to be Accumulated | Maximum of 50 yearly contributions for a period of 35 years, which contributions need to be in the last 10 years prior to retirement and any other 25 years. |
| Calculation of your Social Security pension | employed: best 3 consecutive years in the last 12 years prior retirement year; self-employed: best 10 consecutive calendar years in the last 12 years prior to retirement year |
| Calculation of State pension income | 2/3 of basic salary |
The Maximum Pensionable income on which your pension is calculated increased by the Cost of Living Allowance year on year since 2009.
| Year | Maximum Pensionable Income |
| 2009 | Euro 16,813.16 |
| 2010 | Euro 17,115.80 |
| 2011 | Euro 17,176.12 |
| 2012 | Euro 17,418.44 |
| 2013 | Euro 17,630.60 |
| 2014 | Euro 17,812.52 |
| 2015 | Euro 17,842.68 |
| 2016 | Euro 17,933.68 |
| 2017 | Euro 18,024.68 |
| 2018 | Euro 18,271.68 |
| 2019 | Euro 18,561.66 |
| 2020 | Euro 19,017.37 |
| 2021 | Euro 19,362.72 |
Reaching Your Statutory Pension Age: 63 years of age:
63 years of age is your statutory retirement age – that is at this age your work with your employer is terminated. You can only continue to work with your employer if s/he invites you to continue to work with him/her.
At 61 years of age you could have opted for early retirement – subject to the condition that you have 35 years of fully paid contributions.
If you decided not to opt for early retirement and deferred the receipt of your pension you will benefit from from the incentive scheme provided by government for persons who continue to work up to their pension age. This incentive scheme is also designed to encourage to work up to 65 years of age by increasing the pension income you are entitled to. To know more about this incentive scheme click here.
You can continue to work beyond 65 years of age if you wish to do so. Once gain you can only continue to work with your employer if s/he invites you to do so. If you continue to work once you reach 65 years of age you will not pay the social security contribution on the salary or income earned. To know more about this incentive scheme click here.
The revision of the pension income you receive is carried out in line with the revision of the Collective Agreement of your employer. If your employer does not have a collective agreement but the company still exists, a document is sent to your past employer whereby the employer informs the Department of Social Security about the salaries being earned by the employee who resumed your responsibilities. If the company has closed down since your retirement the re-assessment of your pension is carried out on an identified analogous grade with the Public Service salary structure.
If you wish to know more about the pension system ĠEMMA’s invites you to go through our pension video series on https://gemma.gov.mt/videos/.