British pensioners are poorer than Polish or Romanian pensioners, according to European Union statistics agency Eurostat.

The findings, compiled from data available in 2007 - before the global recession began - show the hardship that British citizens aged 65  years or older are facing.

More pensioners in Britain live on incomes which are below the country's national average income for all ages, compared with Poland, Romania and other nations. Britain's pensioners are joint-fourth with Lithuania for most impoverished conditions in the 27-nation European Union, with 30 percent of pensioners below the national income. The worst nation for pension poverty was Cyprus with 51 percent, followed by Latvia, and in third place Estonia.

Poland's pensioners were relatively wealthier, in 23rd position with only 8 percent of pensioners below national income and the Czech Republic had the least pension poverty, at 5 percent.

The figures were published before the  UK government releases its report on pension poverty on Thursday.