Pensions aren’t in the cards for 40-year-olds: why Minister of Finance shouldn’t have said that and what he offers in return

Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko assured the state pension wasn't in the cards for 40-year-old and younger Ukrainians.

"I shouldn't count, as a forty-year-old, on a pension under the current conditions. Then there are two options: either I look for opportunities and save through private pension funds, or we create conditions for such savings for all citizens. This will lead to fiscal budget losses, and everyone should understand it," he announced.

The result is that those who seek victory in the smallest details even talked about betrayal. They also expressed doubts about the competence of the minister, who in one fell swoop undermined confidence in the government. Marchenko himself has already explained his words:

"People sometimes like to distort what wasn't said. You need to understand the context. I want to explain that the thing I said about myself personally, that I, as a 40-year-old shouldn't count on a pension if nothing is changed in the existing pension system. It will either be quite low or even meager. I meant this. To change this, I, as a 40-year-old potential retiree, think about what to do to create mechanisms that will allow me to accumulate for myself in old age. It concerns someone 40-year-old, 50-year-old, or younger. It's a matter of creating incentives for people to raise and save money to have pensions in the future," he said.

Rubryka decided to find out what pension system the Minister of Finance offers instead and whether his ideas will succeed and asked for clarifications from those who know about pensions like no one else: Pavel Rozenko and Andrii Reva, ministers of social policy in 2014-2016, and 2016-2019, respectively.