Reading a feature on average state pensions in Europe paid monthly by an accountancy firm called Almond Financial and found it very interesting reading.

The UK state pension is 16th in Europe averaging out at £802.32.
Ireland just above us at 15th pays out at £962.08.
Spain is top and pays out a very generous £2287.24.
The average amongst major countries in Europe appeared to average around £1500 but a few were a lot higher than this figure.
Food for thought.

A friend of mine lived in Spain and he told me about it and i was quite surprised.
IMO it's an indicator of a country's regard for its citizens.

I totally agree with you ..However we as citizens of the UK are are let down by all parties..yes all, when it comes to treating its older citizens with respect, just look at how they have up'ed the pension age..and trying to do away with the triple lock...its not a benefit, it's something a lot of people have paid into over there life time.

Alot of younger people seem to think its a freebie. it isn't unless you've never worked in your life.

I see a few things in the press and social media trying to badge pensions as a benefit to stoke up resentment in the ranks of the young who see pension dates getting rolled back every few years.

The Gov are so crafty.

When you get to 90 days of your retirement date you get your assessment how ever i got mine 120 days before and i thought that's a bit strange why have they done this.
Once the assessment is made it doesn't change until after the next tax year so what it meant to me was i didn't get the increase in April because they brought my assessment forward.

There was a programme on recently where the panel were discussing means testing for the state pension. Seriously?
Company pensions, unless you’re in a higher position at work are a nice supplement but you couldn’t live on them.
I get the feeling we’re regressing.

I see a few things in the press and social media trying to badge pensions as a benefit to stoke up resentment in the ranks of the young who see pension dates getting rolled back every few years. [/quote]

Wait until the pension age is 70 +
Which will affect the younger people, never will the words..'it's not fair' will ring out across the land.

A lot of people on more physically demanding jobs don’t make it to 65 now.

I was reading about the introduction of the old age pension in 1908 by the Liberal government and conceived by Churchill (then a Liberal) and Lioyd George.
There were exceptions to who could receive it….anyone in a lunatic asylum….anyone in prison….. anyone who’d been in prison in the past 10 years….’Drunkards’ on the assumption they’d pee it up against the wall anyway…and those who had demonstrated an ‘ habitual failure to work’.
Wonder what would happen if they had those rules today.

I left school at 16 (actually 15 as birthday in August) and started work aged 16 years & 1 month. I was perhaps lucky because I went to a grammar school, whilst if I had gone to a secondary modern I could have left at 15.

Therefore my and other peoples working lives were up to 65 but now most kids don't start working until they are at least 18, so their working life is much the same as us old uns.

By the way this old un was born in East London on the last day of the London Olympics that was the one in London prior to the recent one in 2012. Google that to find out my age!!

Good job you told us or you’d have just turned 11

Interesting the different pension received but how much do these other countries pay into them?

I suppose it depends what priorities the other governments apply to pensions for their citizens regarding their contributions….and how they divid3 their tax take.
Funny how in the case of the UK some pensioners can get pensioner credits to top up their pensions, so isn’t this a case of the pension being too low.

“Taxpayers will be spending more on old-age pensions in two years' time than on education, defence and policing combined, it was claimed tonight”, according to This is Money…

Some one who has never worked in their life and lived on benefits with no savings will receive Pension Credits. On the other hand having worked all your life have a little nest egg and you don’t get Pension Credits and in the unfortunate event you end up in a Care Home they will take your nest egg from you.

I never worked the logic of that out. We all know someone who has literally worked all their life yet they receive a pension never having paid a penny in.
Apparently we have 6 million registered as disabled…..that’s 10% of the entire population which I find hard to believe.

they live to that age but many have been on the sick for a number of years before pension age. we used to get drivers retiring at 65 regularly but that became a thing of the past in the 1990,s. for me there should be no fixed pension age but a pension given after doing a certain number of years working and another really minimal amount for the workshy just to stop em starving. personally i cannot moan about what i get. can still afford to run a car, watch pools live once a month live. we are not saga pensioners by a long way but the thing is neither of us fancy that lifestyle of cruises, eating out or holiday abroad. rather take the dog for a walk.

That's a fair old wedge for them..Remind me to push my way first to the buffet table and into lifts afterwards next time i'm down in the costas.

I agree Mr A, the best part is once you leave work you do change.
Someone said if you want the honest truth with no punches pulled ask a child under 5 or a grandad….that’s because you have no restrictions anymore, no bosses to endure.
I have no wish to be a SAGA pensioner or bucket list of anything, just the time to do what I always wanted to do.

Disclaimer…Please note that whilst all bosses are are now meaningless. she who must be obeyed is till operational

is the cost of living higher in spain or in any other country that gives more too its pensioners. are wages higher for the workers when working. just putting figures out might not tell the full story.

I agree Mr A, the best part is once you leave work you do change.
Someone said if you want the honest truth with no punches pulled ask a child under 5 or a grandad….that’s because you have no restrictions anymore, no bosses to endure.
I have no wish to be a SAGA pensioner or bucket list of anything, just the time to do what I always wanted to do.

the only restriction you have is having less money. however that does not count if your interests are quite small and money does not come into it. the only thing i have cut back on is the type of car i drive. no 4.3 petrol merc estates anymore for me and she has gone from a porshe 944 to an old but really low mileage astra estate. they still get us from a to b a lot cheaper, less points on our licences with only say 10 minutes longer for coming back from the vic.

The figures are assembled by allowing for conditions in each country and cover the cost of living index etc to arrive at that position in the table.
However the amount paid out is at the discretion of each government and apparently some rate pensions a higher priority compared to some other countries.

think pensioners in general get thought of in a higher regard in some countries over others. know for certain they are far more respected in india and pakistan that they are with us and they do not throw their old uns into care homes thinking of any excuse they can to do so. for many us old gits are thought of a drain on the countries finances and have little or no respect for us anymore.

Whilst in the past prices were cheaper in the UK for food and such recent events have reduced that gap.

The main reason I suppose is the NHS, in other countries in Europe there will be higher costs for healthcareor the need to have medical insurance which tends to increase as you get older!

A lot of European countries have much higher levels of renting so that cost will go on into pension income.

But we are at the top end of the retirement age as well.

I pity anyone retiring on just the state pension, especially single people or anyone whose husband or wife has died.
I took pensions out years ago and sometimes wished I hadn’t at the time, but stuck with it and while I can’t afford an helicopter to go to Lidl, it offers you a nice buffer.

The worst for me have to be those relatives who turn up after years of not visiting and then suddenly turn into care plan managers overnight..and all to protect a potential fortune whittling away to 22k in a nursing home without much real thought for their care ..plenty of them about mr a.

Years ago the cost of living in Spain was much lower than in the U.K. that’s why so many Brits retired there, like any country keep away from the tourist areas and it probably still is and shop at the markets where the locals do.
If some one is on the basic pension with little or no savings they will be able to claim Pension Credit and a reduction in their Council Tax. Where as if you have a small lumper you will be disqualified from claiming benefits.
I sat next to a fella who was a manager in a Care Home on my flight back to the U.K. the other week, he said some relatives would visit and ask if their relative was ‘still with us’, he said he had never come across so many cynical people.

bus drivers belly ?? seen a few on our seafront guiding the old dears onto their buses mr a..some of them must weigh over 20st easily..

Watched a whole load of podcasts about living over there...and 89 days at any one time would be enough for me.

Lost my Bus Pass, mentioned to the drivers, nope £1.95, was it because I didn’t look like i pensioner or am I being vain ?

Poor eyesight on behalf of the driver or a cheap botox job abroad mr j? .

I actually have had poor eyesight all my life which was always borderline for driving, it has now deteriorated to the extent I can’t drive anymore. I have cataracts and glaucoma, I don’t appreciate your very snidey comments relating to an individual who is partially sited to put it mildly, BTW I have never used botox, maybe you can advise me ?

Botox works out at about 60 a jab, but i believe it sags after 6 months..teeth whitening ton 50..hair 2k upwards for a thatch...any way you don't need it, just ask your bus driver..

Obviously as you know the prices must you do the treatments on a regular basis, i don’t need teeth whitening either as mine are mostly plastic.

i too have had cataracts and glaucoma. had both eyes done a few months back to remove the cataracts and can now use the keyboard without my specs. as for glaucoma i have had it now for over 20 years and it has not got worse as i follow the doctors instructions to the letter even bringing my drops to games where i do them before the match as its time for them to be done. if you cannot get an operation and your drops are not working i,d try another doctor or hospital. like frootballers they vary as well from very good to ex scotting poolies.

This is turning into a doctor’s problem page
While I’m at it, any treatment for groinal impacts after Ratboy got excited when I mentioned the word lead and beach.

Is the lower pension due to older folks going into care rather than being looked after by family at home?

I think I read somewhere that Mediterranean countries tend to keep old relatives with them (and why wouldn't you if they were bringing in over £2k a month each) whereas we don't tend to do that (I have zero facts to bear up my thoughts that we don't take our old 'uns in beyond I can't think of anyone I know who has done so).

I know that now my mother is in a care home, even though she's paying for it privately until the money from her house goes, the council are paying about 50% above her state pension to cover some of her care costs (while she still gets 100% of her state pension).

Once her money from the house runs out the council will be paying all of her care home costs (although I believe at that point her state pension reduces).

Remember when the Council ran most care homes and admittedly there were private homes but I have no idea what the costs the council incurred.
It’s an industry now.

Over £1,500 a week for a full Nursing Care Home in Scotland now. Council make a contribution of about £320 a week to that at the moment.

My comment about 50% above her state pension proves my inability to do maths and I guess that means my mam gets about £2k a month once the bean-counters get involved (not that she is in any position to spend any of it after working until her mid 60s and having only a basic pension from then until ending in her current position).

A few bills like that soon reduces the money in the pot to go round (especially with an aging population).

Excellent news for pensioners.
£72 a month payrise from April due to the triple lock system.
Still behind other countrys but we getting there..

Some crank on tv moaning benefits dont go up that much.
Probably dosent realize ya have ro work fulltime for at least 35 years to get it.
What a crank.

April next year?

Ye.
You can upgrade ratboys scran.

I’ll have to, the wife’s buying him Marks and Sparks mackerel….’ Cos he’s worth it’…I get a jar of beetroot cos I’m not!

a strong beam and a noose.

we will have to enjoy it whilst we can. will starmer get rid of the triple lock to fund labours usual suspects, the workshy and foreigners.

For me, after the initial ‘impact’.

All well and good getting a rise in your State Pension but more of your private pension gets taxed as the State Pension takes up more of your tax allowance.

That’s why the government keep raising the pension age hoping you might die before you reach pension age.

No you don’t, you could be unemployed all your life for one reason or another and providing you register/sign on you will still qualify for the full state pension and probably pension credits.