Finnish pensions industry association TELA says a survey it commissioned shows most Finns oppose any cuts to first-pillar earnings-related pensions and want the main principles of pension security maintained, but feel uncertain about how the system will in fact be changed over the next 25 years.
As debate continues in Finland about the pension system and weak public finances ahead of next Spring’s general election, the lobby group said on Tuesday that 73% of respondents in the poll believed the level of pensions and the content of pension security “should not be reduced further under any circumstances”.
Saara-Sofia Sirén, TELA chief investment officer, said: “The adequacy of pensions is an important value for Finns, regardless of age. The results suggest that citizens expect stability from the earnings-related pension system.”
TELA said public discussion this year had focused heavily on the sustainability of the earnings-related pension system, ways to use the pension system to bolster public finances, and confidence in pension security.
TELA claimed that one “perhaps surprising” finding from the survey – conducted by opinion research firm Verian on behalf of TELA – was that Finns, “regardless of age, oppose any weakening of earnings-related pensions”.
However, while a majority of respondents in the two age groups of 30-39 and under 30 indicated a belief that pensions should not be reduced further, at 56% and 57% respectively, this opinion was held by a lower proportion than the percentage across all age groups.
Despite the support for the system as it is, the research showed 61% of respondents thought it likely that earnings-related pensions would be gradually reduced by 2050 – to such an extent that the pension alone would no longer be enough to cover living expenses.
TELA said it had been the question about decision-making authority within the earnings-related pension system that had proved the most difficult to answer in the survey, with some 40% of people considering it likely that by 2050, labour market organisations would no longer negotiate on earnings-related pensions.
Instead, they believed the government of the day would make changes to the pension system.
On this question, 27% were undecided, while nearly 34% considered that scenario unlikely, the lobby group said.
“The results indicate that citizens are uncertain and unclear about the direction in which the pension system is heading,” said Sirén.
