What the survey showed
The YouGov survey in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, France and the United States records a clear signal: people understand that state pension systems are becoming less sustainable under the pressure of an aging population and fiscal costs, but at the same time they massively reject classic reform options.
Key figures: between 49% and 66% of respondents believe the system will become unavailable by the time today’s 30–40‑year‑olds retire. In France, Germany, Spain and Italy a majority assesses the system as not working already today.
At the same time, large groups of people are opposed to raising the retirement age, increasing taxes on workers, or reducing benefit amounts. Instead, the most popular ideas were mandatory private savings and measures that help older people remain in the labor market longer.
Why this is happening — and why it’s not just statistics
This is a typical example of the gap between rational awareness of risk and emotional resistance to reforms that imply personal losses or distrust in public institutions. Economists and communications experts say: without a clear strategy for building trust and compensatory measures, even the most logical steps will be politically unpalatable.
For Ukraine this conclusion is directly relevant. The April failure of the vote in the Verkhovna Rada on bill No. 9212 showed that technical readiness does not guarantee public support. The plan of the former head of the Ministry of Social Policy envisaged a new attempt in 2025 and the start of contributions in 2026 — but that did not happen.
“State pensions are a delayed‑action bomb”
— YouGov (description on the survey website)
“A new attempt to adopt the legislative framework for implementing a funded pension system was planned for 2025, with the first contributions in 2026”
— Oksana Zholnovich, former minister of social policy
“The main problem with launching funded pensions is finding an instrument in which those savings could be invested”
— Denys Uliutin, minister of social policy
What this means in practice
If clear mechanisms and transparent communication are not put in place, the country risks addressing the problem “after the fact,” when budgets and younger generations are already feeling it. For Ukraine this means two parallel tasks: find reliable investment instruments for accumulated funds and run an honest campaign that shows what benefits and what risks each scenario carries.
Conclusion — what to do now
The YouGov survey is not a verdict, but a warning. Ukraine needs technologically and institutionally ready solutions: smart legislation, guarantees for citizens and transparent financial mechanisms that will prove — accumulations can work for pension security, not against it. The question is not only economic, but one of political will and communication: will leaders be able to present a plan that convinces society rather than scares it?
