Adoption decision: Old-age pension and partial old-age pension

Chapter 6 a of the Act on Information Management in Public Administration (906/2019, Public Information Management Act) entered into force as of 1 May 2023. The provision on entry into force of the act on the amendment of the Act on Information Management in Public Administration (488/2023) includes an 18-month transition period that applies to such automated decision-making processes that were in use upon the law’s entry into force. In accordance with the provision on entry into force, a decision equivalent to the adoption decision specified in the Public Information Management Act’s section 28 d must be made on the automated decision-making procedures in force before the act entered into force.

This decision equivalent to the adoption decision applies to Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company’s (Varma) automated decision-making procedures for old-age pension applications and partial old-age pension applications under the Employees Pensions Act (395/2006; TyEL), which were in use when the Public Information Management Act entered into force on 1 May 2023.

Varma has used automated decision-making in the processing of old-age pension application decisions since 2017 and in the processing of partial old-age pension application decisions since 2021.

Varma will continue its automated decision-making procedures for old-age pension applications and partial old-age pension applications that it adopted before 1 May 2023.

This decision confirms that the automated decision-making procedures for old-age pension applications and partial old-age pension applications that Varma adopted before 1 May 2023 comply with the Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003) and the Public Information Management Act.

Chapter 8 b of the Administrative Procedure Act stipulates the conditions that must be met, in addition to what is stipulated elsewhere in the act, in order for an authority to be able to make a decision that ends the processing of the matter using automated decision-making without the decision being verified and approved by a natural person.

The authority must assess beforehand which matters are of a nature that they can be decided using automation. The regulations on automated decision-making also apply to Varma when it carries out its task as an implementer of statutory earnings-related pension cover.

In accordance with section 53 e, subsection 2 of the Administrative Procedure Act, a matter can be decided by means of automation if it does not include factors that would require case-specific consideration based on the prior assessment of the party making the decision, or if the processor of the matter has, on a case-specific basis, considered the factors required for automated decision-making.

Furthermore, according to section 53 f of the Administrative Procedure Act, a condition for automated decision-making is that a natural person whom the decision applies to can, in all respects, require that it be corrected free of charge as stipulated in the Administrative Procedure Act, chapter 7 a, or with an equivalent demand, which is processed by the authority having made the decision or by an authority that belongs to the same controller.

An automated decision can be made, according to the Administrative Procedure Act, if it does not include factors that would require case-specific consideration based on the prior assessment of the party making the decision. The automated decision-making procedure for pension decisions is structured at Varma in such a way that processing that requires the consideration of a processor is directed to a natural person for processing. This has been achieved using the so-called exclusion technique so that only decision-making situations that have not been separately excluded enter the automated process. All such work stages that require consideration by a processor have been excluded from automated processing.

In accordance with TyEL, section 11, a condition for granting old-age pension is that the insured must have reached the earliest eligibility age for old-age pension determined based on their year of birth and that the employee is no longer in the employment relationship from which they are retiring. Automated decision-making procedures use these two variables.

The final old-age pension decision is given when all of the information required to make a decision is available. Of the final decisions, after the provisional decision, only the pension applications on which the preliminary decision was made using automation will enter the automated decision-making process. All of the stipulations of chapter 6 a of the Public Information Management Act are followed in the automation of final decisions because they legally confirm the right to pension and the pension applicant has the right to appeal this decision in accordance with TyEL, section 9, and the opportunity to have the decision rectified.

Persons who have on-going YEL activity insured under the Self-Employed Persons’ Pensions Act (1272/2006, YEL) at Varma, directly receive the final decision in the automated decision-making procedure.

A decision made in the automated decision-making procedure is made based on the information in the pension application, conditions for granting the pension as stipulated in law, the type of decision and the register data. The automated decision-making procedure does not include factors that would require case-specific consideration based on the prior assessment of the processor. The pension applicant can, in all respects, demand a rectification of the decision free of charge through an appeal as specified in chapter 7 a of the Administrative Procedure Act. The pension applicant is also entitled to appeal the final pension decision based on TyEL, chapter 9.

A final partial old-age pension decision is made when the application arrives if the information for calculating the pension can be found in the register and the conditions for the automated decision-making procedure are met. The decision is given as provisional if all of the data on earnings or benefits for unpaid periods is not yet available for the year preceding the start of the pension. The final decision after the provisional decision is made when all of the above-mentioned information has been received. The processor of the matter can also prevent the automated decision-making procedure if a factor requiring this occurs during processing.

A decision made through an automated decision-making procedure is based on the conditions for receiving partial old-age pension as specified in TyEL, sections 15–17. A decision made in the automated decision-making procedure is made based on the information in the pension application, conditions for granting the pension as stipulated in law, the pension applied for and the register data. The pension applicant can, in all respects, demand a rectification of the decision free of charge through an appeal as specified in chapter 7 a of the Administrative Procedure Act. The pension applicant is also entitled to appeal the final pension decision based on TyEL, chapter 9.

• Processing rules for the automated decision-making procedure in Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company’s pension processing
• Tasks and decision-making
• Quality management, quality assurance and processing errors
• Data protection and information security descriptions
• Employment pension sector’s shared data and data sources (Finnish Centre for Pensions)

• Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003)
• Act on Information Management in Public Administration (906/2019)
• Act on an amendment to the Act on Information Management in Public Administration (488/2023)
• Employees Pensions Act (395/2006)
• Self-Employed Persons’ Pensions Act (1272/2006)

Automated decision-making procedures were adopted in the processing of old-age pension decisions on 2 June 2017 and partial old-age pensions on 11 November 2021 before the Public Information Management Act’s chapter 6 a entered into force on 1 May 2023.

This decision corresponding to an adoption decision on the automated operating processes currently in use, which were adopted before 1 May 2023, was made on 23 August 2024.

This decision corresponding to an adoption decision on the automated decision-making procedures currently in use was made by Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company’s pension services’ management team. The Senior Vice-President for Pension Services is Tuula Kallio.

For more information on Varma’s automated decision-making procedures for pensions, please contact Pensions Director Tarja Syvälä, tel. +358 10 192 100 (switchboard) or firstname.lastname(at)varma.fi

Decisions and releases concerning Varma’s automated decision-making procedures are publicly available on Varma’s website at varma.fi.