Britain’s state pension ‘poorest in West’

BRITAIN’S pensioners face the biggest drop in living standards of any major developed nation when they retire, a damning report said yesterday.

Workers on an average wage who rely on the state pension could see their income fall by 71 per cent in retirement, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said. The Parisbased watchdog said the state pension in the UK is the worst among the 35 countries that make up the group, and blamed it for high levels of poverty among over-65s.

The OECD said the average pensioner in Britain can expect an income worth just 29 per cent of what they earned at work, compared to the group’s average of 63 per cent.

Caroline Abrahams of Age UK said the report should serve as a ‘wake-up call’, while TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said the figures showed that ‘people in Britain face the biggest retirement cliff edge of any developed nation’.