British pensions among poorest in EU

Nearly one third of the elderly in the UK are living in poverty according to new European Commission statistics, which place British pensioners among the poorest in the European Union.

The figures, published by Eurostat, compared relative poverty in the 27 member states and showed 30% of UK over-65s were at risk of poverty in 2007, the same proportion as in Lithuania, and put Britain fourth in the poverty league of nations.

While the UK fared better than Cyprus (51%), Latvia (33%) and Estonia (33%), the figures revealed British pensioners were worse off than Romania, where 19% fell below the poverty threshold, Poland (8%) and France (13%). Full story from The Herald.

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