Since the beginning of April, Poles have been able to choose whether to leave part of their future pensions in the Open Pension Funds (OFE) or transfer all their retirement funds to the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS). According to surveys by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation1, only 13 percent of Poles state that they want to continue using OFE. More than half of respondents want ZUS to be responsible for their entire retirement - most often they are people who do not set aside money with a view to retirement and those who are not interested in saving and investing.
Surveys by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation have unfortunately shown that Poles have a rather frivolous attitude towards finances - only 11 percent of us set aside money with a view to our retirement. The awareness of Poles that their pensions will be small (nearly 40 percent of respondents believe that a pension from ZUS will be less than half of their last salary, and 9 percent think that the state will not be able to pay out pensions at all) does not have a motivational effect. Only 10 percent of us regularly set aside money, however mainly for short-term goals like vacations or new equipment.
The low percent of persons saving and investing is bad news because in order to guarantee oneself a decent retirement, it is essential to set aside money separately. This requires a knowledge of basic economic mechanisms and the ability to manage a household budget and plan expenditures.
The economic situation increasingly requires that Poles be knowledgeable about financial management, says Krzysztof Kaczmar, President of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation. Our future prosperity depends largely on the decisions that we make today. The choice between OFE and ZUS should generate a discussion on awareness of the possibilities for Poles to take care of their future independently. The low level of popularity of financial products such as individual retirement accounts (IKE) and individual pension insurance accounts (IKZE) only confirms the fact that ignorance can have an impact on the future of several generations.
As data gathered by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation shows, only 11 percent of Poles surveyed believe that the amount of one's pension should depend on the amount of money one sets aside. More than half of the respondents rely on solutions proposed by the current system - 54 percent of them believe that funds received for retirement should depend on salary and number of years worked.
1 Source: "Attitudes of Poles towards Saving", report of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation, TNS Polska, October 2013
