A welcome windfall??

[Wilbro]

@niemeyjt spot
I'm not downloading the report as they want personal information.
The OECD ranks the UK 13th out of 36 OECD countries for pensioner poverty. Not particularly good!
Banging in figures include your own contributions is not a fair comparison of state provided benefits.
Obviously there are many factors affecting quality of life in retirement. One thing I do know is we would be a lot worse off were we living in the UK at the moment instead of France.

[Hotrodder]

. . . and that UK pension is the lowest in Europe by a considerable margin.

Except it is not. Whilst the UK is nowhere near the best, it is not "the lowest in Europe by a considerable margin"

From The Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index 2021:

Austria - 55.0
Belgium - 67.9
Denmark - 82.0
Finland - 77.2
France - 63.2
Germany - 67.9
Iceland - 84.7
Ireland - 70.0
Italy - 55.7
Netherlands - 84.6
Norway - 75.3
Poland - 57.5
Portugal - 62.8
Spain - 61.8
Sweden - 74.6
Switzerland - 72.3
United Kingdom - 73.7

source: https://www.mercer.com/our-thinking/glo ... #collapse0

I mistakenly took my figures from the UK government's own PDF that compares EU pensions. Must be fake news.
https://researchbriefings.files.parliam ... N00290.pdf

[niemeyjt]

I mistakenly took my figures from the UK government's own PDF that compares EU pensions. Must be fake news.
https://researchbriefings.files.parliam ... N00290.pdf

Nope - and actually that research uses the Mercer research I quoted above on p17. But I cannot see anything in your HoC link or mine that shows " that UK pension is the lowest in Europe by a considerable margin."

[exile]

@niemeyjt
sorry but any measure that includes and relies heavily on factors that are in themselves not measurable is just opinion.

Even the measurables are a bit suspect. Home ownership, I can see might be a strong influence in terms of security. It ignores however the vastly different levels of security afforded to those who rent. Short term contracts seem to be the norm in the UK whereas in much of Europe, 3 year (or more) evergreen contracts are the norm. So 25% of Brits live with insecure rentals (not all but you get the point), whereas 35% of Germans rent with almost 100% security of tenure.

My own experience - 9 years contribution to German state pension is roughly the same value (exchange rate dependent) as 29 years UK. Moreover the standard of living is significantly better in Germany. So the same money gets you more. That might well swing towards the UK given the announced increase but will of course be dependent on the exchange rates - which could well slide given the UK's current rather uncertain future fortunes.

[MAD87]

@niemeyjt

My own experience - 9 years contribution to German state pension is roughly the same value (exchange rate dependent) as 29 years UK.

Quite. My French pension is roughly equivalent to my UK pension, for a much shorter period of time. Neither is spectacular, but I find it interesting nonetheless.

[niemeyjt]

I suspect you are on the old state pension - the new one will be over £200 per week from April.

My Swiss pension will also be similar to my UK one after about 10 years - but that is not the pillar 1 State pension, it is the pillar 2 pension based on voluntary contributions and company top-ups.

Similarly my BT pension based on 15 years service and voluntary contributions and company top-ups pays a similar amount.

But these are not state pensions.

The point is "that UK pension is the lowest in Europe by a considerable margin." is simply untrue.

[Hotrodder]

Possibly so but I have heard it on the radio news and read it in various places. All I know from personal experience is that I couldn't afford to live in the UK on what I get as a pension.

[exile]

But if you lived in the UK you would probably qualify for pension support - which is the government's less than subtle way of saying the UK pension is inadequate.

This is what makes making comparison so difficult.

[RobertArthur]

Four reports comparing the UK State Pension with other countries.

[niemeyjt]

This is what makes making comparison so difficult.

Which is why I posted the link to the Mercer Report with a detailed and broad analysis.

@RobertArthur - that is well out of date