The state pension in the UK, at GBP77.45 per week, represents a much smaller proportion of average earnings than the pension in many other European countries.

Elderly people in the UK are eligible for free medical care, including in-patient hospital care, and are exempt from prescription charges. They are, however, required to pay for dentistry and optical care, including the cost of spectacles.

They benefit from concessionary charges for a range of services including public transport, entry to leisure facilities, theatres and cinemas etc.

The market for long term care in the UK is not well developed, although there is a substantial private nursing sector. In other developed countries, particularly the Scandinavian countries, long term care is much more widely available, and services are mostly publicly owned and operated. The Swedish system is wholly tax-financed, while in other countries such as Germany and Japan, long term care for the elderly is financed from compulsory insurance schemes. The UK is similar to the US in that payment for long term care is means tested, taking into account income, savings and assets. In practice, this means that many senior citizens have to pay for their own long term care. In the UK, unlike the US, their residential home is taken into account as an asset in the means test.

Like many other countries, the UK has policy initiatives to address the problems of an ageing population, increasing pressure on the state pension system and the need for expanded arrangements for the medical, social and long term care of the elderly. Policies focused on keeping elderly people in their own homes for as long as possible are being developed.

A new Government initiative was announced in 2005, called 'Partnerships for Older People Projects' (POPP). Funding will be given to local authorities, starting in 2006, to allow them to set up or support schemes supporting pensioners in active and healthy living, such as housing modifications and recuperative care following hospital treatment.