Many readers may be interested to know about the following 10 Downing Street petition http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/pensionpoverty/
to Raise the State Basic Pension to levels paid in every other EU country. Needs as many signatures as possible. Please pass it on to friends and family.
More details from petition creator
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.
