THE UK’s old state pension- for people who reached state pension age of 65 before 6 April 2016 is £129.20 per week. A new state pension is being phased in for people who reach SPA from 6 April 2016 and is currently up to £168.60 per person per week for someone who has 35 qualifying years in their National Insurance (NI) contribution record between age 16 and the state pension age.

Attempts to compare the UK’s pensions with others countries are complicated by fundamental differences between their systems with some countries such as France, Germany and Italy have an earnings-related system, some such as Australia a means-tested ones and others a flat rate system, according to a House of Commons library briefing published in May this year.

The briefing states that the flat rate system in Ireland and the Netherlands is closest to the UK’s. In Ireland the full personal rate for somebody with 48 or more qualifying years is € 248.30 per week in 2019-20. The state pension age in Ireland is 66.

The basic state pension in the Netherlands is linked to the Dutch minimum wage. A single person gets an amount worth up to 70% of the net minimum wage, while a pensioner couple gets the equivalent of 100% of the net minimum wage (50% each).

The amounts are revised each January and July along with the minimum wage itself.

Entitlement is residence-based: an individual accrues 2% of the full amount for each year he/ she is resident in the Netherlands between the age of 15 and the pension age, up to a maximum of 50 years.

For January-June 2019, the full pensions are: €1215.81 per month for a single person, and €835.04 per month (£166 per week) for each member of a pensioner couple. State pension age in the Netherlands is 65