ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the context for a comparative study on income mobility by comparing the pension systems in the two countries Great Britain and Netherlands. It examines the relative economic status of older people in the two countries. The book provides the descriptive results on income mobility using four sets of attributes as the classifícatory variables, namely: demographic, labour market, income and time-period and sample attributes. In both countries the elderly have on average lower incomes than the non-elderly. Between 1991 and 1997 the elderly have experienced a sharper rise in income than the non-elderly in both countries -15% in Great Britain; 19% in the Netherlands. The proportion of females amongst the older people in Great Britain is larger than in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, a majority of the population over 65 is entitled to a supplementary occupational pension.
