Introduction

Knowledge about pensions is needed for life-time planning, for preparing for life transitions and building appropriate expectations about them. Understanding of what pension is requires knowing how pension system works, what principles it is based on, what pensions depend on and how they are calculated. This knowledge is especially important for people soon approaching retirement – the age group that were in the focus of this study; vitally important for those who count on pension as the only income after retirement.

This paper starts by outlining some facts about Belarusian pension system, describing the legislative institutional setting and demographic trends that foreground the awareness about pensions. It continues with the findings of this research into what people of Belarus actually know about their pension system – the knowledge that they further build their judgements and expectations on. It is later explained why people know as little as they do about pensions based on their own arguments and ideas about pension system and mechanisms of social security. An important finding is presented: people of the studied age group on many occasions have more confidence talking about soviet pensions than the pensions of present time. It is followed by the discussion about how much people know about pensions in comparison to how much they are expected to know, and how much pension system determines the amount and quality of knowledge about it.