Old age pension!!! I never gave a thought to old age pensioners. I didn’t know many of them, and the ones I knew were in good health and lived in there own homes.

After living here for over 30 years, I am now a pensioner my self and I know a lot other pensioners. I am lucky enough to have reasonably good health, although 10 years ago I was diagnosed with Prostrate Cancer. I am glad to say I survived this terrible decease, and also came through another precarious time, when the doctors discovered wandering blood clots in both of my lungs.

When my Mother in law had to be placed into care, I was very dubious, because I remembered when I had visited a relative in an old peoples home in England, and I presumed they were the same here. How wrong I was.

For old aged pensioners in Norway, living in an old people’s home is paradise compared with some other countries.

Norway has a very high income rate, between 18 to 20 per cent higher than most countries. In fact it is the second richest country in the world, pulling in about 300 billion dollars from sale of its oil, so you would expect the old age pensioners to be well looked after.

Norway is known throughout the world as a welfare state, and has always protected its people from poverty. The retirement age is 67 and pensioners are always guaranteed a minimum wage of around 30 to 35 per cent of average earnings.

For single people, the minimum pension in Norway is 119,820 Kroner. On today’s exchange rate, that’s somewhere around $18,000 a year.

For couples it rises to 106,236 Kroner or $15,881 each. So each pensioner still married or living together, this is a very nice income.

Today there are nearly 4.8 million people in Norway, and all of them who are born here, or foreign residents who are entitled to welfare, have the right to welfare from the day they’re born, starting with child support.

Schooling is public and it’s free.

Beautiful Norway has one of the highest life expectancy rates on earth because health is also universal and free.

Pensioners save money on dental care, because this too is free.Norway has high taxes and is very expensive, but if you are eligible, they look after you for the rest of your life.