Civil servants must take care when calculating retirement if they continued working after reaching retirement age due to an incorrect age calculation. Contributions made during that extended period do not count toward retirement age.
How Is Retirement Age Calculated?
When calculating retirement, civil servants usually focus on the pension amount and severance pay they will receive. However, the most important factors are the total length of service and the exact date on which they reach the required retirement age.
For retirement calculations, the decisive date is the day the person actually reaches the required age; partial days or counting from an entered age are not accepted. In other words, the retirement age is based on the completed age date, not the entered age. For example, a civil servant born on 12.08.1978 who must retire at age 53 will only become eligible from the date they turn 53. Adding 53 years to the birthdate gives 12.08.2031, and only from that date onward—provided the service length requirement is also met—can they retire.
The same rule applies to retirement at age 65 for state employees: the critical date is the day the age is completed.
How Are Civil Servant Ages Determined?
Another common question concerns which birthdate is used for social security procedures for civil servants. Generally, one must be at least 18 to become a civil servant. For those subject to Law 5434, age limits for both active service and retirement are set by statute. When someone first begins civil service, the birthdate shown on the identity card they present to the institution is taken as the official birthdate.
It is important to note that if a court-ordered birthdate correction on the identity card is made after social security enrollment, the insurance agency will not apply that correction retroactively to the insurance record. Therefore, it is advantageous to complete any age corrections before the insurance registration date.
For those covered by Law 5510, the birthdate used is the one recorded at the time they first began mandatory employment, that is, the date they were included in SGK contributions. As with Law 5434, age corrections made after starting employment are generally not accepted. However, if a person obtained a corrected birthdate before becoming a civil servant—for example, they had their age legally corrected before starting service—then the corrected date will be used. Once insurance registration as a civil servant has occurred, subsequent age corrections cannot be applied to alter that registration.
Can Someone Be Registered as a Civil Servant Before Age 18?
Another related issue is the minimum age for civil service. The standard minimum is 18, but if someone starts work under 18, a court decision of emancipation (kazai rüşt) may be required. Individuals who meet those conditions may enter the civil service and social security system even if they are younger than 18.
This practice is provided for under the Turkish Civil Code: “A minor who has completed fifteen years of age may, at his request and with the consent of his guardian, be declared legally competent by a court.” Court-granted emancipation allows the individual to carry out legal transactions independently. For social security purposes, once a person is emancipated and has completed vocational or art education, they may begin working as a civil servant even if they are under 18. In practice, however, emancipation is now rare because modern education systems typically result in high school graduation at age 18 or older, eliminating the earlier need for emancipation to start work.