The state provides special arrangements for benefits, privileges, and state pensions for people who were unlawfully repressed (and persons treated as such) during the periods of occupation of Germany and the Soviet Union (16 June 1940 – 20 August 1991).
A repressed person can apply for an allowance of 292 euros per calendar year.
**In order to receive the repressed person’s allowance and benefits, you must first apply for a repressed person’s certificate.
Repressed person’s certificate
To obtain a repressed person’s certificate, you must fill in the application for a repressed person’s certificate and submit it to the Social Insurance Board together with supporting documents. As supporting documents, please provide:
- passport or identity card (ID-card) of a citizen of the Republic of Estonia or a document proving the right of residence in Estonia as at 16 June 1940, together with an identity document.
- a document certifying the repression, stating the date on which it began and the date on which it ended.
Children who were born in forced exile or a custodial institution must also submit a birth certificate (if not entered in the population register) and a document proving the repression of the parent and the time when it began and ended. Prisoners of conscience must also submit a rehabilitative judgment.
If you do not have a document proving that you have been repressed, the Social Insurance Board will ask the archives for it. You will have to pay a state fee for this.
Submitting the application:
- send the digitally signed application by email to [email protected]
- send by post to regional customer service, or
- visit the customer service of the Social Insurance Board (can also be filled in on the spot).
You can only apply for a repressed person’s allowance if you already have a repressed person’s certificate.
How to apply for the repressed person’s allowance
To apply for the allowance, you must submit an application to the Social Insurance Board. The application can also be sent by post. You only need to apply once and you will receive the allowance for life.
Repressed persons who have received benefits for the restoration of health or compensation for travel expenses do not need to submit the application. They are paid the repressed person’s allowance without having to submit an application.
Payment of the allowance
The allowance is paid, at the request of the recipient, into the current account of the recipient or, on the basis of a written application filled out at the Social Insurance Board or a notarially certified statement or a digitally signed application of the recipient, into the current account of another person in Estonia or, at the expense of the recipient, into the current account of the recipient abroad.
The allowance is paid once a calendar year, on 12 January.
Privileges
In addition to the allowance, a repressed person can use the following privileges:
- free entrance to state museums, the Nationwide Song Festival and Nationwide Dance Festival, and the Students’ Song and Dance Festival;
- the right to fish for recreation free of charge, except with gear or in areas where a fishing card is required (e.g. entangling nets, longlines, dip-nets or traps, salmon and trout in rivers, etc.).
- extracts from the land cadastre of the immovable property owned by the repressed person are exempted from the state fee.
- a local government may exempt residential land from land tax if the repressed person does not receive rental income from it.
You can read more about calculating the pensionable seniority of a repressed person here on the website of the Social Insurance Board.
Information on all privileges, allowances, and pension rights can be found on the website of the Social Insurance Board.
Who is a repressed person
Unlawfully repressed persons include:
- victims of genocide
- people who were sentenced to imprisonment or exile because of their beliefs, financial status, origin, or religion
- people sentenced to imprisonment or exile for failure to comply with special obligations established for the citizens of the occupying state (e.g. military service, loyalty to the state)
- freedom fighters who were punished by the occupation regimes – prisoners of conscience
- deported
- people subjected to forced labour in the labour battalions of the Soviet Union during World War II or as prisoners of war immediately after the end of World War II
- people sent to forced labour outside Estonia during the German occupation
- victims of nuclear tests and people forcibly sent to the area of a nuclear disaster
- children born in forced exile or a custodial institution where the parent was a victim of unlawful repression
- children born within five years of the release of the parent from forced exile or after that if the parent was unable to return to Estonia for good reason.
The following persons are also deemed to be repressed persons
- people who took part in the armed struggle for the restoration of the national independence of Estonia from 16 June 1940
- people who became disabled while mobilised or conscripted in the armed forces of the USSR and did not take part in repressions on the territory of Estonia.
If you have any questions, please call the information line of the Social Insurance Board at 16106 or (+372) 612 1360 or send an email to [email protected].