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Overall only 37% of French respondents of all age groups claim to trust the current state pension system
With a lot of attention being given to the topic of pension reform, Contrepoints.org asked our team to carry out a study to shed some light on how French people feel about the existing system and what their expectations are for the future. Overall only 37% of French respondents of all age groups claim to trust the current state pension system. This is creating some interesting opportunities for private pension schemes.
Young people have the least faith in the current state pension system.
Only 6% of the French population claim to “totally trust” this system while a quarter of them “totally distrust” it. Whether this is due to the recent series of reforms, the demographic future of France or simply the fact that this age group is far from retiring age, the younger the respondent, the less they trust in today’s system. Fewer than 30% of 25-34 year olds trust in the current system.
Great opportunities for providers of private individual pension savings schemes for the under 35s
This lack of trust in the state pension system means that young people are turning to private and individual alternatives to prepare their retirement. The under 35s clearly prefer personal pension options to the state pension system.
This shows a weakening of the current pension model. On the one hand there is a lack of trust and on the other a clear decline in intergenerational solidarity. These two points mean that most French people currently prefer to secure their own future, by their own means. As a result, in the years to come they will be increasingly interested in private individual savings solutions. This provides a great opportunity for financial establishments but what will they offer their clients? What will they propose to satisfy their prospective clients’ expectations?
This study was carried out between August 27th and September 2nd 2013 via our FlashFacts omnibus survey and our online access panel. The sample included 1009 respondents, representative of the French population by gender, age, region and socio-professional category respecting the method of quotas from the ages of 18 to 65.
