Professor John Doyle:

Pre-2016, for those people who have an older level of contribution, their pensions are pretty miserable. It is €85 a week, as is unemployment assistance. It is all merged in the universal credit now. Basically, the traditional pension in the North was around €80 a week. It was very poor. That is still the case for unemployment and disability assistance, those normal working age benefits, but there was a radical change in the British state pension in about 2016. That has gradually become the norm.