We received a petition asking:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to raise the State Basic Pension to levels paid in every other EU country.”

Details of Petition:

“The UKs Basic Pension is 17% of the National Average Wage. Most European pensioners receive a Basic Pension of at least 60% of their countries Average wage. Only Estonia (33%),Ireland (31%),Holland (30%)and the UK(17%) pays a Basic Pension of under 40% of its Average Wage. A Political consensus was reached by the EU Nations at the Laeken Summit 2001. that each Member State would attempt to attain a Basic Pension of 40% of its Average Wage by 2007 and then work towards 60%. The UK provides the worst Basic Pension by far. In fact , taking the Pension as a percentage of each countries Average Wage you will note that Pensioners in Greece, Luxembourg, Spain and Italy receive over 5 times our basic pension. Those in Portugal, Malta , Hungary and France receive over 4 times as much and those in Poland ,Czech Republic ,Latvia ,Finland and Sweden receive 3 times as much. Slovakia ,Cyprus ,Denmark, Germany ,Lithuania and Belgium receive over double ,whist finally Estonia Ireland and Holland have almost twice our basic pension.”

· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage

Read the Government’s response

Comparisons between levels of State pensions alone do not give a clear picture of overall provision for pensioners. A major consideration is that the amount quoted as being the ‘rate’ of pension in some countries is not a flat rate paid to all pensioners but an average rate. Many countries have earnings-related schemes and thus people who have received low earnings get much lower pensions.

In the European Commission’s Joint Report on Social Inclusion and Social Protection 2009, they found that “the income of elderly persons has increased significantly over the last decade, keeping pace with the strong growth in earnings”

It also showed that pensioners’ incomes had risen from 15% below the EU average in 1997 to 9% above it in 2007.

It should also be noted that there are fundamental differences in the availability of other entitlements and services between different countries. For those on low income, the UK provides one of the most comprehensive systems of support in the European Union.

One of this Government’s key commitments is to address pensioner poverty. Since 1997 we have targeted help on the poorest pensioners, those who need it most, whilst providing a solid foundation of support for all. We will be spending around £13 billion more on pensioners in 2008/09. Around half of this extra spending is going to the poorest third of pensioners.

It is misleading to focus on the basic state pension alone. Taking account of the additional state pension means the total income is equivalent to around a third of average earnings. In addition, private pensions are a far more important source of income in the UK than they are in other countries - in the UK 86 per cent of pensioners have an income other than State entitlements.

In fact, Eurostat data shows that the median income of older people in the UK compares well with other EU countries. It is the 5th highest in the EU taking into account differences in living costs - higher even than in France and Sweden.

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