CAN A WORKER BE FORCED TO RETIRE WITH DISABILITY?
I was born on 14.08.1986. I have 6139 days since my long-term insurance started on 31.01.2006. My current monthly salary is 28,210 TL. I will have a disability rate of around 55% due to some health issues. There are two issues I'm curious about.
I know that when the disability rate is over 60 percent, I can retire on disability and my working life ends. Is this true? Will I have any problems if doctors give a higher rate than I expect? I want to continue working.
Another thing I wonder about is when it is more advantageous to apply for retirement. My gross salary is 180,000 TL. As far as I follow, my pension increases by nearly 500 TL every month. When do you think I should retire? (Orçun D.)
There is no mandatory retirement for workers. Only when civil servants reach the age limit, their relations with civil servants are terminated and, if they are eligible, they are retired. The age limit for civil servants is 65. The age limit for university faculty members is 67.
Workers' old-age pension is granted when they request it. Neither SGK retires ex officio nor the employer can force retirement.
The situation is slightly different with regard to disability pension. According to the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510, in order for a person to be considered disabled by the Social Security Institution (SGK), a report must be prepared by the health committees upon the request of the person or the employer. In the prepared report, those who have lost at least 60 percent of their working capacity or ability to work in the profession as a result of a work accident or occupational disease are considered disabled.
In hospitals, the disability rate is normally determined for each disease of those who have more than one disease. SSI, on the other hand, takes into account the rate of loss of working capacity determined for a single illness for those who apply for disability pension or retirement due to disability. So to speak, SGK goes to great lengths to award disability pension.
A disability rate of 60 percent or above due to health problems does not mean that you will be considered disabled. The employer can only make a request if you appear unable to work at the workplace. Otherwise, for example, the employer cannot force you to submit a disability report for no reason because you had surgery.
On the other hand, based on the information you have provided, you would be correct in not retiring and continuing to work. Apparently, your pension appears to be low yet because your previous premium-based earnings were low. On the other hand, since your gross wage has subsequently increased to 180 thousand TL, as you noticed, your pension increases significantly every month. In this way, if you continue to work at a gross wage of 5.5 times the minimum wage, your pension will increase to a much better level. Therefore, I recommend that you continue working even if you are entitled to a disability pension.
Since you are 60 years old for retirement, if you are entitled to a disability pension or early retirement due to disability, you may want to use this right in the following years. When that day comes, you will first need to obtain a report by applying to SSI and act in accordance with that report.
WHY ARE THE PAYMENTS OF RETIRED SSK DOCTORS LOW?
"Is service consolidation mandatory in retirement?" I read your valuable article titled. I started working in November 1998 and worked as a doctor in the government until 2017. Then, I worked with SSI between 2020 and 2025. I retired from SSI in November 2025, benefiting from EYT. I currently receive a pension of approximately 25 thousand TL. Could there be an error in the calculation? My accountant said it was normal, but I couldn't be convinced. (Murat K.)
Unfortunately, the main mistake in the calculation stems from the law. The salaries of those who first worked as civil servants and then worked in BAĞ-KUR or SSK and retired from these statuses are calculated very low.
The pensions of retirees subject to the Pension Fund are determined according to their profession and additional indicators. When a person first works as a civil servant and then retires from SSK or BAĞ-KUR, unfortunately, his profession and additional indicator do not matter. Prime basis earnings are taken into account. Since not all of the civil servants' earnings are included in the premium-based earnings, the pensions granted by SSK or BAĞ-KUR are also low.
A second problem arises from the fact that the premium earnings of physicians subject to BAĞ-KUR or SSK are shown to be low. For example, when I look at your service record, your premium earnings are shown as minimum wage during the periods you worked for BAĞ-KUR. Your premium earnings while working with SSK remained at the level of 1.5 - 2 times the minimum wage. In this case, the pension provided is low.
Your counterpart who retires from the Pension Fund receives 80,772 TL monthly for physicians and 90,824 TL for specialist physicians. 31,510 TL of these monthly salaries for physicians and 40,963 TL for specialist physicians are due to the additional payment made specifically for physicians.
I have written about this several times before. Physicians who retire from SSK or BAĞ-KUR after working in the public sector should also be able to benefit from this payment in proportion to the time they worked in the public sector. Physicians subject to the Pension Fund are required to work for 25 years in order to receive these payments. It seems that you have worked as a civil servant for 19 years. You should also be able to receive 19/25 of the additional payment, that is, 23,948 TL. If this were the case, your pension would increase to 49 thousand lira, not 25 thousand lira.
In order to ensure fairness in this regard, the law needs to be changed.
CAN EXPATRIATES BENEFIT FROM PARTIAL RETIREMENT?
I am writing to you from Germany. I was born in 1967. I had SSK service between October 1, 1983 and May 1, 1987. I worked as a civil servant at the Pension Fund between 1 May 1987 and 14 November 1995. I have been in Germany since 1996 and have been working as a worker. I personally went to the SSI provincial directorate to find out my retirement status. They said that I could not retire from the Pension Fund because they required 9000 days for retirement. They said that I could retire by borrowing my missing days from SSK and BAĞ-KUR. What do you recommend me to do? (Coşkun E.)
From the information you provided, it appears that you have been a civil servant for 8.5 years. If you have 3600 premium days along with your SSK studies between 1983 and 1987, you can benefit from the right to partial retirement from the Pension Fund.
According to the Pension Fund Law No. 5434, those who started insured employment for the first time before September 8, 1999 can partially retire by meeting the conditions of 10 years of service and 60 years of age. Ten years of service means 3600 premium days. I think you have completed your 3600 bonus days.
Depending on your date of birth, you can apply for partial retirement from the Pension Fund as of the date you turn 60.
Since you will retire without borrowing abroad, you can continue to work at home or abroad without having your pension cut off.
