Pensioners want a better deal

Sandra Gidley, spokeswoman for older people, said it was unfair so many pensioners were too poor to heat their homes properly or eat healthily.

"Older people have been pushed around... for too long," she told the party conference in Bournemouth.

Members backed plans to replace the council tax and to bring in free personal care for the elderly.

The council tax is to be replaced by a local income tax.

The conference was told that about 40% of people in residential care have to pay their own fees and about 70,000 older people have to sell their homes each year to pay for long-term care.

'We owe them'

Richard Renaut, prospective parliamentary candidate for Bournemouth West, urged party activists to help abolish "the twin evils that stalk the land" - council tax and care fees.

Ronald Heinrich, from Huntingdon, told how he had to take early retirement to care for his mother, due to the "chaotic" provision of home care services.

Front bench spokesman Edward Davey said scrapping the council tax would leave 90% of pensioners better off.

"Pensioners deserve a fairer deal. They are the generation that worked and sacrificed and paid their taxes to set up our National Health Service.

"They're the generation that bequeathed us a country we love and are proud of. We owe them."