Glossary Entry per letter - O

The rules for acquiring the old-age pension entitlement are mainly governed by the Act of 17 December 1998 on pensions from the Social Insurance Fund (Journal of Laws of 2009 No 153, Text 1227, as amended). The Act classified persons insured into three age groups:

• persons born before 1 January 1949,
• persons born after 31 December 1948,
• persons born after 31 December 1948 and before 1 January 1969.

Membership of a particular age group results in different conditions under which one can acquire the right to the pension and the rules for determining pension amount.
Persons born before 1 January 1949 acquire the right to the pension and to its calculation method under the hitherto principles. This also applies to persons born after 31 December 1948 and before 1 January 1969 , who - before 31 December 2008 - have satisfied conditions required to be granted an early retirement pension.
Persons born after 31 December 1948– as a rule – acquire the right to the pension under the so called new rules, which also provide a new method of determining the pension amount.
Specific occupational groups may also acquire the right to the early retirement pension pursuant to other laws, for example teachers - pursuant to the Teacher's Charter. This applies first of all to persons born before 1949, and in some cases – also those born between 1949 and 1968. 
The old-age pension is - in principle - granted on request of the person concerned, with an exception of recipients of disability pensions, born both before 1949 and after 1948, who are awarded the old-age pension ex officio after having attained the statutory retirement age.