You can make up for missing contribution years in the following five years, provided that you were insured with OASI before those five years. This assumes that you identify these gaps in time. To check your situation, you can request an OASI statement from the compensation office.

1st pillar

OASI maximum pension: here’s what matters

How can you obtain the maximum OASI pension? Learn about the conditions and how you can close possible contribution gaps before you retire.

by UBS Insights 24 Sep 2024 2 min read

Content:

The full OASI pension requires complete contribution years. An average income of CHF 88,200 is also needed for a maximum pension.
Married couples together receive a maximum of 1.5 maximum pensions.
Missing contribution years can be paid in within the following five years, provided you were insured in the OASI before this time.
Credits and compensations can increase your pension entitlement up to the maximum pension.
To the conclusion

Not everyone who is insured with the OASI (Old-Age and Survivors’ Insurance) and pays contributions will receive the maximum pension when they retire. According to a statistic from the Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO) from February 2024, at the end of 2022 only 41 percent of single persons and 71 percent of married couples were receiving the maximum pension. The average monthly OASI pension was CHF 1,862 for men and CHF 1,883 for women.

Find out which factors affect how much pension you will receive and how you can still receive the maximum OASI pension despite contribution gaps.

Conditions for the maximum OASI pension

In order to receive the maximum OASI pension, you must meet the following conditions:

Full contribution years

To obtain the maximum pension, you must not have missed any contribution years during your working life. If you did not pay contributions in each of the 44 years from age 20 to the reference age of 65, there will be contribution gaps. Your pension is reduced by 1/44 (approximately 2.3 percent) for every year of missing contributions. For women, 43 contribution years are currently still required to obtain a full pension. After a transitional phase starting in 2025, the reference age will be aligned for men and women from 2028 and will be 65 years for everyone.

Full average income

The amount of the OASI pension depends on the contribution years as well as the income you earned over the course of your professional life. You are entitled to the maximum OASI pension if your average annual income across all contribution years was at least CHF 88,200. Incomes from previous years are adjusted with a so-called revaluation factor to account for inflation. The years should be weighted approximately equally as a result.

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Maximum and minimum OASI pension per month (2024)

OASI pension	OASI pension	Monthly amount	Monthly amount
OASI pension	Full minimum pension for an individual person	Monthly amount	CHF 1,225
OASI pension	Full maximum pension for an individual person	Monthly amount	CHF 2,450
OASI pension	Maximum for a married couple	Monthly amount	CHF 3,675

How is the OASI pension calculated?

In the state pension system, the amount of benefits is determined by law. As a rule, the Federal Council adjusts the pensions in pillar 1 to the price and wage developments every two years.
The maximum OASI pension is currently CHF 2,450 per month for individuals.

For married couples, the following ceiling applies for the OASI pension: The pensions of a married couple may not exceed 150 percent (CHF 3,675) of the maximum pension for an individual when combined. If the total of the couple’s two pensions is higher, they will be proportionally reduced and paid out separately.

This ceiling does not apply to unmarried couples – each person can receive a maximum pension. However, cohabiting partners are not entitled to a widow’s or widower’s pension.
In 2024, the minimum pension is CHF 1,225.

Worth knowing

Important change: from 2026, old-age pensions will be paid 13 times a year. This is the result of the popular vote from March 2024.

Maximum contribution years for the full OASI pension

Only if you pay OASI contributions will you be entitled to a pension. And only if you pay in all the required years can you receive a full pension, depending on the amount of contributions made. You must pay in for at least eleven months to receive any pension at all.

Contributions are mandatory for everyone from no later than 1 January after their 20th birthday. Anyone who is gainfully employed earlier becomes liable to pay contributions from 1 January after turning 17. For employees, the OASI contributions are deducted from their income, while the self-employed pay them directly to the OASI compensation office. It is your responsibility to clarify how much you are personally required to pay and to make sure you do so.

Those not in gainful employment must also pay contributions until they reach the reference age. Their annual minimum contribution is currently CHF 514. The contributions to be made are based on their retirement income and their net assets. Anyone who has never been gainfully employed but has paid at least this contribution every year will receive the minimum pension. If there are missing contribution years, the minimum pension will be reduced.

Worth knowing

Married individuals not in gainful employment are insured through their spouse from the date of marriage. They do not need to make any contributions themselves, provided their partner is gainfully employed for the purposes of OASI (in simple terms, this means working at least 50%) and pays at least double the minimum OASI contribution, which amounts to CHF 1,028 (from 2024).

Contribution gaps reduce the OASI pension

If retirement contribution gaps exist in the OASI, there is no entitlement to a full pension and only a partial pension will be paid.

Contribution gaps arise when you have not paid contributions for each of the mandatory 44 years of insurance (women in 2024: 43 years). The shorter contribution period is noticeable, for example, among former workers who spent some of their working life in Switzerland and are now drawing their pension abroad. Almost two-thirds of beneficiaries abroad have only up to 15 years of OASI contributions. As a result, the average pension is only CHF 630 for men and CHF 645 for women.

The following are the most common reasons for OASI contribution gaps:

Living abroad
Studies
A lot of short-term jobs at different employers
Employer’s failure to forward OASI contributions
Failure to pay the minimum contribution for individuals not in gainful employment following a divorce
Retirement of the spouse

Close contribution gaps to receive the full pension

If you discover contribution gaps in the OASI, you may still be able to obtain the maximum pension under certain circumstances.

Back payments

Compensations

Another option is to compensate for missing contribution years. Those who complete an apprenticeship and therefore already paid OASI contributions before reaching the age of 20 can have up to three so-called “youth years” counted as OASI years. Anyone whose contribution gaps arose before 1979 can also have up to three contribution years credited. This is to compensate for the fact that gaps have had a more negative impact since 1979 due to a new evaluation method. Together with the crediting of contribution months for the year in which you reach retirement age, you can compensate for up to almost seven years this way.

Credits

Mothers and fathers benefit from child-raising credits for the years in which their child was younger than 16 years old. For those with several children, the period for which they receive parental credits is extended. The credits are considered as notional income and thus increase the pension entitlements. For married couples, the credits are split in half. This gives parents a better chance of demonstrating the income required for the maximum pension, even if they have temporarily reduced their working hours. The same applies to everyone who cared for relatives in need of care before retirement. They can have caregiving credits credited. The education and caregiving credits are each three times as high as the annual minimum pension in the year of entitlement.

Continuing to work beyond the reference age

With the entry into force of OASI 21 on 1 January 2024, there is an additional opportunity to close gaps by continuing to work beyond the reference age and making OASI contributions accordingly. These contribution periods are possible until the age of 70 at the latest and can be credited under certain conditions. You can clarify with your OASI compensation office whether this applies to you and is worthwhile. It is important that you request a recalculation of the old-age pension from OASI after you finish working beyond the reference age or at the latest when you reach the age of 70.

Do I have a pension gap?

If the benefits from pillars 1 and 2 are not enough to maintain your desired standard of living in retirement, you’ll need to save more. Find out how much today.

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Improve your retirement pension through voluntary savings

To get an idea of your potential old-age pension, you should regularly obtain a free OASI statement. Additionally, the Swiss Compensation Office offers you an easy way to estimate your OASI pension online. If you want a more precise calculation before retirement, you can also request a pension forecast from the OASI compensation office.

If you foresee that you will not qualify for the maximum OASI pension upon retirement, you can make other provisions for old age. Employed persons who are insured in an occupational pension plan can increase their pension from pillar 2 by making a voluntary purchase into the occupational pension scheme. It is also worth mentioning voluntary private retirement savings. Pillar 3 allows gainfully employed individuals to accumulate retirement capital with tax benefits and close any pension gaps.

If you want to defer your old-age pension, you must notify the relevant compensation office within one year after reaching the reference age.

You can also obtain a higher OASI pension by delaying the start of your pension. Receipt of your pension can be deferred – in whole or in part – for a minimum of one year and a maximum of five years. If you defer for the maximum period, your pension at age 70 will be 31.5 percent higher.

If you want to defer your old-age pension, you must notify the relevant compensation office within one year after reaching the reference age. You do not need to decide at that point for how long you want to defer.

Conclusion

To obtain the maximum pension entitlements from OASI despite contribution gaps, you must above all keep track of your contribution years and deposits.

You must find out for yourself how high your entitlements are in old age. To do this, all you need to do is request an OASI statement from the compensation office. The sooner you do this, the better. You can only make up for missing contribution years in the following five years.

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OASI maximum pension: here’s what matters

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