Early Pension Changes: Higher Support & No Shortening

In 2023, premature pensions were significantly tightened, among other things, the maximum premature period of 3 years was reduced and financial shortening increased in the first two years. In connection with this, some of the people have temporarily claimed early retirement, and for some, with regard to the permanent reduction in pension, this option ceased to be interesting. The fall of interest in premature pensions is also shown by the numbers for last year, when only 4,619 new early pensions were awarded.

The tightening should partially compensate for a new advantage for people who have worked for a long time. If someone has received more than 45 years of pension insurance, from January 2026, they will be entitled to half the reduction. However, all insurance periods are not counted, for example, study or unemployment does not take into account at all, which significantly reduces the range of people who meet the conditions. I devoted myself to the counting of the insurance times for half the reduction in this article.

In the July article, I wrote that part of the sixties because of the healthy health and stress ceases to manage their work, and reflections on early retirement are an important part of their considerations on what to do next. Often, premature pension in planning is combined with pre -retirement, labor office or combination of both.

It is the Labor Office that is one of the possibilities that the earlier end at work may be more bearable in terms of financial impact. In addition, this year, significant changes in unemployment benefits have been approved, and especially people will be entitled to more favorable conditions shortly before retirement. From January 2026, the following will start to apply:

At the same time, the rule remains that the register at the Labor Office with the receipt of support is always calculated as a pension insurance period of 80 %. This means, for example, that 100 days in the records mean counting 80 days until the insurance period.

This new model is surprisingly solidarity, especially to the sixties who have only a few years retired and are planning an early retirement. Because the first three months they can get 80 %support, they can almost “disturb” one reduction for premature.

The shortening of early retirement increases for every 90 days of premature, in particular, the pension is reduced by 1.5 % of the calculation base. This means a shortening of about 250 to 500 crowns for each cycle, depending on the expected pension. If someone is entitled to half the reduction, it will be 0.75 % of the calculation base, and logically the reduction of the pension will be half. (I devoted myself to the cycles of shortening and their impact in this article.)

Essentially, enrollment in the Labor Office may ensure that early retirement and reduction of a reduction by one 90 -day cycle, for relatively small financial losses. Unemployment benefits will be 80 % of net wages for this period, which is advantageous in my view.

To imagine better, see the following example:

Mr. Richard was born in 1963 and reaches a proper pension of 5. 10. It is therefore considering that it will end in the middle of 2026 and ask for early retirement in July. If he asked from 1, 2026, he would have a total of 6 cuts.

However, if he enrolls from July to September 2026 to the Labor Office and asks for early pension up to 1. 10. 2026, he will have only 5 reduction cycles. It receives a net wage of CZK 32,000, so for this unemployment period it should be entitled to support of CZK 25,600. It is even a little more than its early retirement. If he stayed at the Labor Office two more weeks longer, now with lower support, he would even reach another cycle, and would have only 4 cuts cycles.

Of course, some people are using the Labor Office before pension now, after all, it may be advantageous because someone is missing a few weeks to get the next year of pension insurance. However, as support is newly increased, this option will be more advantageous, especially when support in some cases even temporarily higher than the expected pension itself.

People who are approaching a proper pension will also be able to use this possibility and want to end at work earlier. Then they can “survive” for several missing months to a proper retirement at the labor office and completely avoid shortening.

According to the experience that some readers described to me, it may be useful to openly mention that you are just waiting for a retirement when registering at the Labor Office. There is then a chance that officials will no longer send you to different job interviews and will not require meetings. As Mrs. Dana from the north of Moravia described to me, sometimes the officials will break the stick: “I immediately said I was here for just 5 months and then I ask for a pension. And I stressed that if he sent me for an interview, the pension would be the first thing I say there. I would like to see a company that would like to accept someone for such a short time.

For the sake of completeness, I add that you can receive support from the labor office even in the event of receiving pre -retirement, these two things do not collide in any way. The same applies to disability pension I. and II. degrees. You may have a disability pension, pre -retirement and support from the Labor Office together.