This is the English version of a Turkish article. The original, with further detail and linked petition templates, is at Sosyal Güvenlik Hakları: SGK Primlerinizi Kontrol Edin.
You can check your social security record free of charge through the e-government portal, and checking it regularly is the only way to notice undeclared or under-declared employment early. Under-declaration does not only delay retirement; it directly affects unemployment benefit, health cover and workplace accident entitlements. And once the work has been done, a five-year forfeiture period begins to run for establishing it.
A pattern seen too often: someone who has worked for thirty years reaches retirement and finds that only twenty appear on the record. Establishing the missing ten then means proceedings in the labour court.
How to Check Your Record
The most practical route is the e-government portal:
- Log in with your identity number and password.
- Request the record of insured employment — the registration and service record for employed persons.
- Examine it month by month. Were contributions paid, how many days were declared, and what earnings were shown as the basis?
- Confirm the start date. Check that the date your insurance began matches the day you actually started work.
- Identify missing days or contributions — periods you worked for which no declaration was made.
The date insurance began matters especially, because the contribution days and the age required for retirement depend on it. An earlier start date can mean an earlier retirement.
Undeclared and Under-Declared Employment
An employer may employ someone without declaring them at all, or declare fewer days or a lower wage than the reality. Both have serious consequences.
What under-declaration costs the worker:
- Retirement. Fewer contribution days means a later retirement date and a lower pension.
- Unemployment benefit. The entitlement requires 600 days of contributions in the last three years and 120 days of continuous employment before leaving; missing days can defeat it.
- Health cover. Cover for the worker and their dependants depends on contributions being paid.
- Workplace accidents. Where an accident happens to an undeclared worker, the institution pays the benefits and then recovers them from the employer — but the worker's own position becomes far harder to establish.
- Severance and notice pay. A wage declared below the real figure reduces every entitlement calculated on it.
| What to check | What it affects |
|---|---|
| The date insurance began | The retirement age and contribution days required |
| Days declared each month | Retirement, unemployment benefit, health cover |
| The earnings declared | The pension, and every entitlement calculated on the wage |
| Gaps in the record | Whether an action to establish employment is needed |
| The leaving code | Unemployment benefit and severance entitlement |
An action to establish periods of insured employment is subject to a five-year forfeiture period running from the end of the year in which the work was done.
What to Do About Missing Periods
- Take a dated copy of the record and mark the missing periods.
- Gather the evidence for those periods: payslips, bank records of wages, attendance records, entry and exit logs, correspondence, and colleagues registered at the time who can act as witnesses.
- Complain to the institution. A report by a social security inspector can establish the employment administratively, without proceedings.
- Bring an action to establish the employment in the labour court, naming the employer as defendant with the institution joined as a necessary party.
- Watch the five years. The period runs from the end of the year in which the work was done — but it does not run at all where a document exists from which the institution could itself establish the employment.
Where the action succeeds, the institution collects the unpaid contributions from the employer with a late-payment surcharge; they are not sought from the worker.
What the Employer Faces
Undeclared employment carries consequences for the employer as well: an administrative fine for each undeclared worker, the contributions with a late-payment surcharge, loss of the contribution incentives, and, where an accident occurs, recovery of the benefits paid.
These consequences matter to the worker too, because they are what make a complaint to the institution an effective step rather than a formality.
Everything — retirement, unemployment benefit, health cover, severance pay — is calculated from the contribution record, and the period for establishing missing work is five years from the end of the year in which it was done. A single check each year is what keeps a decade from going missing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check my contributions?
Through the e-government portal, by requesting your record of insured employment. Check the start date, the days declared each month and the earnings shown as the basis.
What does under-declaration cost me?
A later retirement and a lower pension, possible loss of unemployment benefit, gaps in health cover, and lower severance and notice pay where the wage was declared below the real figure.
What can I do about years missing from my record?
Complain to the institution, which may establish the employment through an inspector's report, or bring an action to establish insured employment in the labour court against the employer, with the institution joined.
How long do I have?
Five years from the end of the year in which the work was done. But the period does not run where a document exists from which the institution could itself establish the employment.
Will I have to pay the missing contributions?
No. Where the employment is established, the institution collects them from the employer with a late-payment surcharge.