Opinion poll on private pensions

According to a recent poll, many Romanians are unaware of the money they have in their mandatory private pension accounts.

Mihai Pelin, 17.10.2018, 11:58

Around 1 million Romanians have some 2,145 Euro each in their
compulsory private pension accounts, but they do not know they have this money,
a recent poll conducted by the Association for Privately Managed Pensions in
Romania has shown. According to the survey, 11 years since the launch of the
current pensions system, Romanians still trust Pillar 2, they know their rights
and are aware that their contribution is important for the country’s economic
development. 86% of the people interviewed, aged 20 to 55 and living in the
urban area, have heard of the Pension Pillar 2 but only 60% of them say they
are contributing.

The study also shows that, in spite of the fact that two thirds of
respondents believe that unless measures are taken the state may have
difficulties in paying pensions to the next generations, more than half of them
still count on the pension provided by the state when they retire. President of
the Association for Privately Managed Pensions in Romania, Radu Craciun,
explains the results of the study on the Pension Pillar 2:

71% of Romanians know that the money from Pillar 2 is their
property. 67% of them know that the money from this fund is guaranteed under
the law and, finally, 71% believe that Pillar 2 must be kept in place. Almost 1
million Romanians have at least 10,000 lei in their account without being aware
of that. They either believe they have less money in the account or do not know
they have been contributing any money at all to Pillar 2.

Most respondents said they trust the fact that their money is well
invested and almost two thirds of the active population believes maintaining
the compulsory private pension system is necessary. However, the amounts that
Romanians have in their personal accounts of Pillar 2 are by 17.8% smaller than
they should have if the law was observed, the Association for Privately Managed
Pensions in Romania argues. The decrease in value has been triggered by the
fact that individual contributions should have been raised by 6% starting
January 1st 2016, which did not happen. At the end of 2017 the
Government decided to decrease the percentage to be paid for the privately
administrated Pension Pillar 2, from 5.1% to 3.75%. Launched in 2008, Pillar 2 had
net assets of 9.9 billion Euro at the end of September and numbered 7.18
million contributors. The optional private Pension Pillar 3 had net assets
worth 425 million Euro and 465,000 contributors. 90% of the total assets of
the two funds are invested in the Romanian economy.