Significantly fewer people now believe their pension will be enough to cover their living costs, according to the Pension Barometer published on Tuesday by the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
The survey revealed that a quarter of Finns rate their retirement income prospects as poor or rather poor,
A year ago, 20 percent of Finns said they expected to manage well in retirement, but now only five percent feel the same. The figures aren’t fully comparable, according to the pension centre, as this year’s survey was conducted via an online panel instead of phone interviews.
Women have less confidence than men that their pension will cover a decent retirement. People under 30 are also more likely than others to rate their future retirement income as poor or fairly poor.
While half of respondents still trust Finland’s pension system, confidence is declining — and fewer people now have a clear opinion on the issue.
"The responses reflect uncertainty: fewer respondents have strong opinions compared to previous surveys. Assessments of the pension system may have been influenced by global political and economic uncertainty, as well as public discourse on the pension reform," said Susan Kuivalainen, Head of Research at the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
Majority view pension reform positively
This year’s Pension Barometer asked, for the first time, what people in Finland think about the pension reform agreed on in January.
The biggest change concerns how employment pension companies can invest Finland’s collective pension funds. In the future, these companies will be allowed to take on greater risk in their investments in pursuit of higher returns.
In other words, a larger share of pension funds will now be invested in stocks — a shift that seems acceptable to most Finns. The pension reform agreed in January received an overall positive response, with more than half viewing it as at least fairly good and fewer than one in ten expressing criticism.
"Older respondents were generally more positive about the reform, but 45 percent of those under 35 also considered it a good thing," said Sanna Tenhunen, an economist at the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
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