UK state pension among the least generous

The UK’s state pension is one of the least generous in the world, according to a report from an international think tank.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), just two countries pay poorer pensions than the UK; Chile and Mexico.

The study compared pension income to the salaries that people earned with results showing typical pensioners earn just over a third of what they do when working. For those earning an average salary in the UK, it found that the so-called replacement rate was 38.3.

“This analysis makes embarrassing reading for the politicians who have been responsible for the UK’s pensions over the past 25 years,” said Tom McPhail, the head of retirement policy at Hargreaves Lansdown told the BBC, regarding the findings.