Reducing individuals' exposure to social risks is desirable from an individual and state perspective. A key factor determining the level of protection against the effects of social risks is the form of employment. The aim of this article is to indicate whether individuals with a lower level of protection in the social security system are characterised by lower trust in the Social Security, a more individualistic life attitude, or a lower level of knowledge about the pension system - and whether weaker protection is accompanied by compensatory measures. The answer to these questions is made possible by a statistical analysis based on individual data from the ZUS survey Knowledge and attitudes towards social security. In its light, those with the highest level of protection are also those with the highest level of knowledge about the mechanisms of the security system, while those with the highest or lowest level of protection are characterised by a slight dominance of communal over individualistic attitudes. Trust in ZUS is not statistically significantly different between groups with different levels of protection. Among compensation activities, voluntary saving is clearly more frequently recorded among those with low trust in ZUS, while the episode of working abroad was more frequent among those with above-average levels of knowledge. In selected subgroups, gaps in social security that could be compensated by public policy are revealed.