Survey: 26 percent of people in Estonia believe they will never retire
According to a pension survey carried out by Estonian bank Luminor, 26 percent of people in Estonia believe that they will never retire. Of those who think they will retire at some point, around a third think they will have to pass the age of 70 before it happens, Baltic News Service reports.
The survey polled those who held second pillar pension funds with Luminor.
The second pillar is a pension fund contributed to on a mandatory basis by employers and employees. A recent bill, championed by the coalition Isamaa party, would make membership of the second pillar optional if it passes at the Riigikogu.
Younger people in particular who responded to the survey, as well as men in general, and native speakers of Russian, are among those who think they will never retire or retire at an advanced age, according to Luminor.
The survey also found widespread dissatisfaction with the pension system in Estonia as it stands, with only 7 percent of respondents saying it was fair, and an even small number, 3 percent, saying they believe the system will cover their retirement needs.
The latter figure is nonetheless a small rise on a Luminor survey from two years ago, where 2 percent felt that their pension would be adequate.
From those who believed they would retire (see below) the figure was higher – 11 percent believed the current system would be sufficient for their needs.
Breakdown
Of those who believe they will retire at some point, 33 percent thought this would be beyond the age of 70, and 13 percent thought it would happen between 66 and 69. The official retirement age is 63.
As noted the overall figure for those who believed they would never retire was 26 percent of respondents.
From the 17-36 year-old age group, 35 percent of respondents believed they would never retire, whereas this figure was 23 percent in the next age bracket (37-60).
29 percent of men who responded to the survey believed they would never retire, compared with 22 percent of women.
35 percent of native Russian speakers thought they would not ever retire; 24 percent of native Estonian speakers felt the same way.
"These results can be interpreted in different ways," said Martin Rajasalu, Luminor Pensions Estonia board member, according to BNS.
"There are likely those who do not plan or want to retire themselves, but there is a high probability that there are people who think that the retirement age may increase so much in the future that they simply will not live long enough," he said.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte