The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on implementation of new occupational pension schemes in Poland

Marek Szczepański

Abstract
The aim of the article is to address the question of the impact the coronavirus pandemic (March 2020 to May 2021) has had on the level of participation in employee pension plans (PPK), and the role of other factors in this process. The research considers various groups of stakeholders  as participants in the process of changes to the pension system, manifested by the introduction of PPKs in 2019−2021. The PPK programme, in contrast to the assumptions of its initiators (change leaders), has not yet become universal; to date, it covers just slightly more than a quarter  of those eligible to participate (as of July 2021). This is due to a number of factors, some of which are independent of the stakeholders in the change management process − including a lack of trust in the pension system caused by the partial reversal of the pension reform introduced in  Poland in 1999 and the global coronavirus crisis that commenced in March 2020.

Keywords: employee pension schemes, pension reform, social policy, coronavirus pandemic, Poland

Szczepański, Marek, The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on implementation of new occupational pension schemes in Poland. FSP, č. 5, 2021