While in 1985, 6.5% of the over-65s could officially be described as poor, by 2010, this had fallen to 2.5%, a new report on poverty in the Netherlands says.

However, poverty has risen among other groups and there are an increasing number of poor immigrants and people with jobs who have very low incomes, the government’s socio-cultural think-tank SCP says in its review of poverty over the past 25 years.

Extra cash

‘The state pension has risen more than welfare benefits,’ researcher Cok Vrooma is quoted as saying. ‘In addition, most over-65s have a supplementary pension as well and so are well over the poverty line.’

The poverty line used by the researchers is €1,022 a month for a single person, €1,400 for a couple and €1,920 for a family with two children.

There has been a lot of concern in the Netherlands in recent weeks about the effect of government austerity measures on pensioners.