WE have a German friend staying with us at the moment, we do not mention the war, but I was interested to see how our pensions related.

The maximum earnings related pension in Germany is some £26,000 on average earnings of £29,000.

The UK pension is £7,488 on average earnings of £31,000 and guess what they are to put it up to £7,500 in 2016!

This does not take into account SERPS which can fortunately increase the basic pension quite a bit.

My Pension with SERPS on final earnings of around £28,000 is a little over £12,000 and if it were not for my own personal pension, which I paid for out of my earnings I would be in financial trouble.

We may have won the war but we have lost the peace.

How can Germany afford to pay so much?

After all they lost two major wars!

It just goes to show the incompetence of our government what else can it be?

The above info was found on a respected website.

MIKE ASTON, Beatty Road, Bournemouth