Court decisions regarding age corrections will have their effects and consequences from the date the decision becomes final. Therefore, age corrections made after the individual’s initial registration with the Social Security Institution will, as a rule, not be considered in insurance transactions.[2] Conversely, age corrections made before first becoming insured under long-term insurance branches will be considered valid by the Social Security Institution. These existing provisions of Social Security and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510 are also preserved in Circular No. 2011/58 issued by the Social Security Institution on “Allocation Procedures for Insured Persons Under Articles 4/1-(a) and 4/1-(b) According to Law No. 5510.” However, a significant difference in this circular is that the impact of age corrections on insurance coverage is acknowledged with a few exceptions. According to the circular:
“Age adjustments made after the date of the insured’s work accident, occupational disease, or first long-term insurance will not be taken into account. Furthermore, if the date of birth first recorded in the population registry is corrected due to errors made during the renewal of the population registry, in new registry records, in the transfer of population registry records, in new civil registry records, or in the civil registry records of those who have acquired Turkish citizenship in Turkey, or for the purpose of correcting material errors made by the civil registry office against the insured’s will, the corrected new record will be taken into account in such record corrections, provided that these matters are documented or stated in a court decision.” These regulations fall within the aforementioned exceptions.
Furthermore, it is not legally possible to correct the retirement age by filing an age adjustment lawsuit. Even if the age is changed, this change will not affect the waiting period for retirement. The Constitutional Court’s decision dated 19.11.2008 in its 2008/64 and 2008/129 decision stating that ‘not counting age adjustments made after being insured for the first time as valid in retirement accounts is not unconstitutional’ supports this.