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The maximum weekly state pension is £141 in the UK, £507 in Germany, £304 in France, and £513 in Spain.
The figures for the UK, Spain and France are in the right ballpark, but differences between their pension systems means it’s not a fair comparison. Germany doesn’t have a maximum amount for its state pension.
An image claiming that French, German, and Spanish maximum weekly state pensions are between double and triple those in the UK has been shared around 11,000 times on Facebook at the time of writing.
Compared to these other countries, the UK state pension is essentially a flat rate with the exact amount dependent on years of contributions and age. Spanish, German and French pensions are calculated using more complex formulas that depend on previous earnings, so their maximum weekly pensions appear higher as those would be for the countries’ higher earners.
Many UK workers pay into additional non-compulsory workplace pensions as well, and those are dependent on earnings.
The UK state pension is the worst in the developed world, according to data from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
As a percentage of average earnings, the UK government pays out 29 per cent, putting it at the bottom of a table which is led by the Netherlands, which pays 100.6 per cent, Portugal, which offers 94 per cent, and Italy, which gives 93.2 per cent.
The UK is joined at the bottom of the list by Japan, Poland and Mexico, but all these countries still pay better state pensions, the report by the group of developed nations showed.
Mexico's is the closest, representing 29.6 per cent of average earnings but the next country in the ranking, Poland, pays 38.6 per cent while Japan pays 40 per cent.
Germany is around the middle of the pack, paying 50.5 per cent of average earnings, just above the USA which offers 49.1 per cent.
The UK isn’t the worst, but it is at the bottom of the pile. This doesn’t really make sense when you consider that Britain is one of the wealthiest nations on earth, but it is another example of how the rich exploit the country, and is yet another example of why the rich wanted Brexit.