The participants of the pension system should have some basic knowledge on its functioning. In Poland, when the new pension system was introduced, no public education was conducted in this area and the participants of the system gained the information on this issue on their own. Greater knowledge in this field would have led to proper functioning of the system. The results of the survey concerning opinion of the benefi ciaries on functioning of the general pension system were discussed in the paper. The research proves that more than a half of the surveyed assessed the financial situation as insuffi cient. The most often indicated reason for this situation was financial management, number of benefi ciaries and the level of benefi ts. The research proves that the benefi ciaries have currently some knowledge on functioning of the pension system. However, “younger pensioners” have higher awareness in this area.

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