The results of the annual independent sociological study, which determined the level of financial literacy of the population in the field of pensions and the degree of public confidence in UAPFJSC, have been summed up.
The study was carried out using a telephone survey and questionnaires of the urban and rural population of 14 regions of Kazakhstan and 3 cities of republican significance. A total of 3,000 respondents were interviewed, including 2,085 employees (69.5%), 768 self-employed (25.6%) and 147 unemployed (4.9%).
A significant part of the respondents (841 or 28.03% of the total number of respondents) are employed in the field of commercial business, then those who are employed in the manufacturing business - 458 respondents or 15.27% of the total number of respondents. Least of all turned out to be those who are employed in the field of science - 62 respondents or 2.07% of the total number of respondents.
The main block of questions of the research questionnaire consisted of 25 questions aimed at identifying the financial literacy of the population of Kazakhstan in the field of pension provision, as well as determining the degree of confidence in the pension system of Kazakhstan and the UAPF.
In general, according to the survey, one can notice a positive trend towards the development of trust both in the country's pension system itself and in the UAPF. In particular, according to the results of the survey, a significant part of the population is of the opinion that the main source of their financial well-being after the end of their labor activity will be pension savings from the UAPF - 1270 respondents, or 42.33% of the total number of respondents. The second most important, according to the respondents, is the pension from the state - 21.17% of the total number of respondents (635 respondents). Other savings, in addition to savings in the UAPF, are counted on by 473 respondents, or 15.77% of the total number of respondents (the third most frequent answer).
It is important to note that the level of confidence in the UAPF has grown in comparison with the results of the last year's survey. The average level of trust in the Fund is 6.0 points (minimum 1, maximum 10 points), i.e. results are above average. A year earlier, this indicator was 5.4 points. This year, the highest score was recorded in the Kyzylorda region (7.3), the city of Shymkent (7.0) and the Almaty region (7.0 points).
The level of public confidence in the pension system of our country was 5.8 points. As a reminder, a year earlier the level of trust was 5.1 points. In the context of regions and cities of republican significance, the respondents living in the city of Shymkent (7.1 points), Kyzylorda (7.0 points) and Almaty (6.9) and Kostanay (6.7) regions had the greatest confidence in the pension system.
The level of financial literacy in the field of pensions was analyzed at two levels: basic and advanced.
Kazakhstanis answered a significant number of questions on the basic level correctly. Almost half of the respondents - 1,449 people (48.3% of the total number of respondents) - correctly define the function of the UAPF, which is the accumulation of compulsory and voluntary pension contributions of contributors, keeping individual records of pension savings, and making pension benefit payments from pension savings. The respondents were also well aware of the types of pension contributions and payments.
1,342 respondents (or 44.7% of the total number of respondents) are aware of both the state basic pension benefit, guaranteed to all citizens of Kazakhstan, and the state labor (solidary) seniority pension, and about pension benefits from the UAPF at the expense of the employee's own pension savings, formed from compulsory pension contributions, compulsory occupational pension contributions, voluntary pension contributions. The majority of the respondents answered the question about the age of retirement correctly - 2066 respondents or 68.87% of the respondents. 85% of the respondents (or 2,558 respondents) chose the correct answers to the question of how to find out about the state of their individual pension saving account.
In total - the coefficient of knowledge of the basic level exceeded 50 percent and amounted to 62%.
For the advanced level, the questions were more difficult. The answers to them were less straightforward. For example, 40.97% (or 1229 respondents) are aware of the function of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan in terms of trust management of pension assets and investment of pension assets to obtain investment income, of which 420 respondents (or 14.0% of the total number of respondents) also know on the possibility of contributors transferring their pension assets to trust management by the Investment Portfolio Manager (IPM). At the same time, 1101 respondents (or 36.70% of the total number of respondents) mistakenly believe that the investment of pension assets is carried out directly by UAPF JSC.
1457 respondents or 48.57% know that pension savings are invested in various financial instruments and are multiplied by investment income. And at the same time, 1,543 respondents or 51.43% answered that they were not aware that pension savings are invested and multiplied by investment income, or answered that they did not understand finance and investment at all.
As a result, the general coefficient of knowledge of the advanced level was 27.5%, which is higher than the indicator of the previous year, which was 26.9%.
The survey was also conducted on the channels for obtaining information about the pension system as a whole and the UAPF. Almost half of the respondents tend to receive information (news) through television (1358 mentions / 45.3%), slightly less - through social networks and instant messengers (1007 mentions / 33.6%). The third most common source of information is news and other sites - 644 mentions / 21.5% among respondents. Based on this, the cumulative influence of Internet sources (social networks, instant messengers and sites) is greater than that of television. Among Internet sites the most popular and frequently mentioned source of information was named by the respondents the corporate site of the Fund - enpf.kz.
In terms of obtaining information about their savings, the surveyed citizens traditionally choose a personal appeal to the offices of the UAPF: 1191 mentions of respondents or 39.7%. The second most optimal way to obtain information about the state of an individual pension saving account, according to respondents, is to receive information through the UAPF mobile application (982 references or 32.7%), slightly less than 933 respondents (31.1%) chose the option of an answer to the PSC, followed by obtaining information through their personal accounts on the UAPF website (882 mentions or 29.4%).
The study of the availability of information on the activities of UAPFJSC showed that almost half of the respondents find the process of obtaining information easily accessible to everyone (1481 respondents or 49.37% of the total number of the surveyed population). At the same time, a significant part of the respondents who participated in the survey (1421 or 47.37% of the total number of respondents) believe that the basic information about the activities of the UAPF is understandable for everyone. However, 847 respondents or 28.23% of the total number of all respondents believe that it takes time to obtain information about the UAPF.
In general, as the study of the level of financial literacy of the population in the field of pension provision has shown, most of the population has basic knowledge of financial literacy in the field of pension provision. At the same time, there is also an increase in knowledge at the advanced level.
Independent experts noted that the UAPF should continue further information and explanatory work, as well as take into account the results of the study in the course of the implementation of strategic tasks to further strengthen confidence in the UAPF and in the pension system as a whole.