VSAA

What functions VSAA performs

VSAA carries out a wide range of tasks in the field of social insurance. Main functions include:

• granting and paying pensions;
• granting sickness, maternity and similar benefits;
• paying unemployment benefits;
• granting survivor benefits;
• providing social services for people with disabilities;
• recording social insurance periods;
• tracking and analysing social contributions;
• paying various social compensations.

What VSAA does for individuals

For residents of Latvia, VSAA provides essential social protection services:

• calculating and granting old-age pensions;
• granting sickness benefits;
• processing maternity and childbirth benefits;
• granting parental benefits;
• determining eligibility for unemployment benefits;
• providing compensation for workplace accidents;
• maintaining records of social insurance periods.

Most life situations related to social protection are handled through VSAA.

What VSAA does for employers

For businesses, VSAA plays an important role:

• collects data on social contributions;
• registers occupational diseases and workplace accidents;
• monitors timely payment of social taxes;
• provides employers with access to information via EDS;
• cooperates on employee social guarantees.

How VSAA is connected to the social tax

The social tax withheld from an employee’s salary:

• goes into the VSAA system;
• forms the social insurance period;
• affects the amount of the future pension;
• determines eligibility for various benefits.

The higher the official income, the greater the employee’s social rights.

Example: how VSAA calculates benefits

For example, when a sick-leave certificate (B-lapa) is submitted, VSAA performs the following steps:

• receives information from the doctor;
• checks the paid social contributions;
• calculates the benefit amount using the formula;
• transfers the payment to the person’s bank account.

The size of the benefit depends on official salary and insurance period.

How to contact VSAA

You can check data and submit requests:

• via the portal latvija.gov.lv;
• via EDS (Electronic Declaration System);
• in a VSAA service centre;
• by calling the information hotline.

VSAA and salary calculation

VSAA affects:

• future pension insurance periods,
• benefit amounts,
• the range of social guarantees,
• sickness and parental benefit calculations,
• unemployment rights.

To see how social contributions affect future benefits, you can use the salary calculator on this website.