Changes to the payment of pensions abroad

As of 1 January 2026, most Czech pensioners (clients of the Czech Social Security Administration – CSSA) living abroad will benefit from a simplified pension payment process. The majority will no longer need to send the CSSA a “Certificate of Living” before each pension payment, but only twice a year. Pensions will be paid in regular monthly instalments rather than retroactively after the “Certificate of Living” has been submitted, as has been the case until now. Clients residing in Slovakia will no longer be required to submit the certificate at all.  At the same time, the option to receive pensions via bank cheque will be discontinued. We remind clients that submitting the “Certificate of Living” is how they confirm their entitlement to the pension payment (i.e. inform the CSSA that they are alive). These changes are part of the newly adopted pension reform.

• The CSSA will no longer require a “Certificate of Living” from clients residing in countries where an agreement has been concluded with the relevant insurance institution for electronic data exchange on deaths. As of 1 January 2026, this initially applies only to receivers of Czech pensions with residence in Slovakia.
• Clients residing in EU member states (plus the United Kingdom, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland) and in countries with which the Czech Republic has concluded a bilateral international social security agreement (“member and agreement states”) will be required to submit a “Certificate of Living” bearing their authenticated handwritten signature to the CSSA only twice a year, in June and December. These clients will receive their pension in regular monthly instalments for the current calendar month, rather than retroactively after submitting the “Certificate of Living”, as was previously required.
• For clients residing in countries that are neither EU member states nor have an international social security agreement with the Czech Republic (“non-agreement states”), there will be no change. The “Certificate of Living” bearing their authenticated handwritten signature must still be sent to the CSSA at intervals determined by the client. Pensions will continue to be paid retroactively only after the “Certificate of Living” has been received.
• The option of receiving pensions via bank cheque is being discontinued. Pensioners who currently receive their pension by bank cheque in EUR or CHF will receive their final cheque by post, delivered to their address, in September 2025. The last cheques in other currencies will be sent in December 2025.

How your Czech pension payments will change from January 2026

I live in Slovakia

From 2026, you will no longer be required to send a “Certificate of Living” to the CSSA. The last time we requested one from you was in February 2025. We will continue paying your pension in regular monthly instalments using the same method as before.

The CSSA has signed a “Cooperation Agreement on Bilateral Electronic Data Exchange” with the Slovak Social Insurance Agency. This agreement enables the mutual electronic exchange of data on the deaths of individuals who receive pensions from one country while residing in the other, making it possible to abolish the obligation to submit a “Certificate of Living” entirely.

I live in another member state (other than Slovakia) or in an agreement state

From January 2026, we will begin paying your pension in regular monthly instalments instead of as a lump sum for a longer period you selected. At the end of 2025 – or at the latest, with your first pension instalment for January 2026 – we will also pay you any outstanding amounts for earlier periods (up to a maximum of five years retroactively) since your last pension instalment following submission of your previous “Certificate of Living”.

To issue this pension back payment, we will require a “Certificate of Living” bearing your authenticated handwritten signature in December 2025. It is essential that the authentication of your signature be dated December 2025. If the date of authentication is earlier, we will be unable to pay your pension for December 2025 or begin your regular monthly payments.

In 2026 and beyond, you will no longer need to submit a “Certificate of Living” before each pension payment. Instead, it will only be required twice a year – in June and December. This will confirm your entitlement to monthly payments for the following six months. For example, if you submit the “Certificate of Living” in June 2026, we will continue paying your pension monthly for the second half of the year (July to December 2026). Then, by submitting the next “Certificate of Living” bearing your authenticated handwritten signature in December 2026, you will confirm entitlement to payments through to June 2027, and so on. We will remind you of this requirement each year by letter or email, one month in advance (i.e. in May and November). To maintain continuity of payment, your handwritten signature on the “Certificate of Living” must be authenticated between 1 May and 30 June, and then between 1 November and 31 December, each year.

If we do not receive the “Certificate of Living” within the specified timeframe, your pension payments will be suspended from the following month until the certificate is submitted.

We will send you an informative letter in August 2025 summarising all these details and providing links to the relevant CSSA web pages.

I live in a non-agreement state

If you live in a country that is neither an EU member state nor has a social security agreement with the Czech Republic, and your Czech pension is paid to a bank account, your pension payment conditions will remain unchanged. You will continue to determine how often you send us the “Certificate of Living”. Once we receive the certificate, we will pay you the pension due for the period from the month following the authentication of your previous certificate through to the end of the calendar month in which you had your signature authenticated on the new “Certificate of Living” form.

I receive my pension by bank cheque

The payment of pensions by bank cheque is being discontinued. The reasons for this are outlined below. If your pension is paid by bank cheque in EUR or CHF, your final cheque – covering the period from July to September 2025 – will be sent by post in September 2025.

If your pension is paid by bank cheque in another currency, your final cheque will be sent in December 2025 and will cover the period from October to December 2025.

We will begin pension payments for the next period once we receive your banking details. Please provide your bank account number using the form titled “Application of a person living outside the territory of the Czech Republic for the payment of a Czech pension by remittance to a bank account” and send it no later than 31 December 2025 to: ČSSZ, odbor realizace výplat pojistných dávek a exekučních srážek, Křížová 25, 225 08 Praha 5, Czech Republic.

In August 2025, we will send you an informative letter reminding you of this and summarising the pension payment conditions for bank transfers as of 1 January 2026.

If you reside in a member or agreement state and also send us a completed “Certificate of Living” form bearing your authenticated handwritten signature in December 2025, we will start your regular monthly pension payments by bank transfer as of January 2026. You will also receive a back payment for the period October–December 2025, provided that your pension was previously paid by bank cheque in EUR or CHF.

The payment of pensions abroad by bank cheque will end as of 1 January 2026. This is due to legislative changes introduced as part of the pension reform. Furthermore, the Czech National Bank, which arranges the payment of pensions by bank cheque to pensioners abroad through its correspondent banks, has also informed us that, as of November 2025, its correspondent bank CITI BANK will stop issuing and cashing bank cheques in euros (EUR) and Swiss francs (CHF).