Early retirement through military and maternity service credit: Does it lower your pension?
Military service credit can move your insurance start date back, potentially allowing you to qualify for the EYT (Retirement with Age Condition) scheme; however, this does not always increase your pension. On the contrary, if you pay for the credit at a high premium rate, your pension may actually decrease. Experts recommend making these payments at the lowest premium rate to avoid negatively impacting your retirement pension.
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Another path to early retirement for insured individuals is the opportunity for service credit. Female employees can complete missing premium days through maternity service credit, while male employees can bring their retirement dates forward through military service credit.
Service credits can have either an increasing or decreasing effect on the retirement pension. It has been shown that it is more advantageous to purchase service credit at the lowest premium rate to complete missing premium days.
Military service credit allows for military service performed before or after the start of insured employment to be added to the Social Security Institution (SGK) records. This system, which is useful for qualifying for the EYT scheme and retiring regardless of age, can have an effect that either increases or decreases the retirement pension.
Habertürk economy columnist Ahmet Kıvanç wrote that it is more advantageous to purchase service credit at the lowest premium rate to complete missing premium days. On the other hand, female insured individuals can also retire earlier by purchasing credit for periods they could not work due to childbirth.
According to Kıvanç, military service credit can help complete missing premium days and qualify for the EYT scheme by backdating the insurance start date. However, its effect on the retirement pension varies from person to person.
Kıvanç stated the following:
"It generally does not increase the retirement pension, and sometimes it can even lower it. Therefore, military service credit should be purchased at the lowest premium rate, because the return on borrowing at a high premium does not cover the extra premium paid."
