Raising the pension contributions of employees and employers was the second most popular means to consolidate the funding of pensions, with 34 per cent of respondents regarding it as a good or fairly good idea and 35 per cent as a bad or fairly bad idea. A little over a quarter (26%) of respondents voiced their support for and 37 per cent their reservations about taking on greater risks when investing pension funds.

“Finns are somewhat surprisingly not supportive of seeking higher profits by increasing the risk of investment activities carried out with pension funds, even though it could be a means to reduce the upward pressure on pension contributions,” analysed Allan Paldanius, a director at ETK.

The least popular course of action was slashing the pensions of current or future pensioners. Cutting the pensions of current pensioners was deemed a bad or relatively bad idea by 84 per cent and cutting the pensions of future pensioners was deemed a bad or relatively bad idea by 83 per cent of respondents.

Public trust in the pension system has remained high despite demographic concerns, according to ETK.

About 70 per cent of respondents stated that they have confidence in the system and roughly as many that they have confidence in pension funds being managed reliably. Over a half (54%) of respondents viewed nonetheless that younger age groups have to take on a disproportional burden for pension contributions.

The survey also sought to measure public understanding of key features of the system.

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