The administrative procedure from application to decision

For old-age pensions from the age of 65: click here!
For early old-age pension between 57 and 65: click here!

The application form must be returned by post. It must bear the original signature of the pension applicant and be accompanied by a bank statement in the applicant's name.

To let you know that your request has been received, the CNAP will send you an acknowledgement of receipt.

When processing your application, the CNAP may ask you for additional supporting documents and must check that the conditions for the pension are met.

When you send your supporting documents, it is important to clearly write your Luxembourg social security number on them.

The conditions checked are:

• age and insurance duration conditions
• the condition of combination with a professional income

The CNAP needs to know all your insurance periods to check whether you are entitled to a pension.

If there are gaps in your insurance record about which we have no information, we will ask you for information about these gaps.

According to your answer, the CNAP requests official documents from other national and international authorities.

If you meet the age and insurance duration conditions for entitlement to the early old-age pension, the CNAP will send you a questionnaire to find out whether you want to stop working or continue working.

If you stop working, your pension will start the day after your disenrolment.

• If you last worked in Luxembourg, the CNAP will wait until you have disenrolled from the Joint Social Security Centre (www.ccss.lu) before determining the start date of your early old-age pension.
• If you are an employee, your employer must disenrol you. A certificate stating the date of entitlement to a pension, to be given to your employer, is attached to our questionnaire.
• If you are self-employed, you must take the necessary steps to disenrol with the Joint Social Security Centre (www.ccss.lu).
• If you were last enrolled abroad, it is useful to enclose proof that your employed or self-employed activity has ceased.

Once you have returned the questionnaire on the cessation or continuation of a professional activity, no further information will be sent to you by the CNAP until your pension starts.

If you continue to work

Before setting the start date of your pension, the CNAP checks that your professional income does not exceed the limit authorised by law.

• If you continue to work in an employed activity, we ask you to attach to the questionnaire a certificate from your employer stating when you start work, the hours you work and the amount of your salary.
• If you continue to work in a self-employed activity, we ask you to indicate the amount of income you receive from this occupation in the questionnaire.

The best document to send to the CNAP is the career record drawn up by the pension institution in the foreign country.

If you do not have such a record, please tell us at least your foreign social security number, the exact periods you worked abroad and the pension institution with which you were insured.

In all cases, the CNAP itself requires official proof of your insurance periods from the pension institution in the country (or countries) where you worked. Although such an exchange of predetermined data is provided for in European regulations and is increasingly carried out digitally, it can take time to receive this certificate.

The CNAP has no influence over the processing of your file by a foreign institution.

For more information, click here!

If you meet all the conditions, the CNAP will inform you of your pension entitlement as soon as possible, but no earlier than the date on which your pension starts.

We normally grant you an advance on your pension, pending the booking of your last salary by the “Centre commun de la sécurité sociale” (Joint Social Security Centre). This is done approximately 2 to 3 months after your pension starts.

If you were last enrolled abroad, we will await definitive confirmation from the foreign pension institution of your insurance periods up to the start of your pension.

The procedure for your application is completed when we notify you of a pension application decision, which may be appealed, together with the final calculation and statement of account.

The CNAP will inform you as soon as possible of the rejection of your pension application, by notifying you of a decision to reject which may be appealed.