 Protesters want an increase in the basic state pension |
Up to 1,000 pensioners from around the UK have taken part in a lobby of Parliament, to highlight what they regard as the continuing decline in their incomes. They say recent rises in the state pension and other benefits for the elderly have been wiped out by soaring council tax and utility bills.
The pensioners met MPs to urge them to reinstate the link between the state pension and average earnings.
They are also unenthusiastic about the new pension credit.
The lobby - organised by the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) - was timed to coincide with the first questions to the Prime Minister since the summer recess.
'�8bn extra'
Organisers said the event adds weight to the claim that the power of the "grey vote" is becoming more important.
The NPC wants the link between the state pension and earnings restored.
The link was broken in 1980 by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government.
 |  If I had to sit at home and twiddle my thumbs all day because I couldn't afford to go out and enjoy myself, I honestly wouldn't want to go on living  |
If it had not been broken, a basic state pension for a single pensioner would be worth about �30 a week more than the current level, campaigners say.
The NPC says this April's increase in the basic state pension of �1.92 a week for a single person has been completely swallowed up by big council tax rises.
However, the government says that in 2003/04 it will be spending about �8bn a year extra on pensioners as a result of policies it has introduced since 1997.
This is far more than pensioners would have received if the earnings link to the state pension had been restored, it says.
| If the earnings link had not been ended in 1980, a single person would receive a basic state pension of �109 a week and a couple would get �174 a week |
The government also argues that the new Pension Credit will reduce inequalities between richest and poorest pensioners by targeting money at those who need it.
Pensioners Minister Malcolm Wicks said there were "hard choices" to make, but the government believed supporting the poorest pensioners was the best option.
"We're committed to maintaining the level of the basic pension, but given the poverty we inherited in old age, we think it's right to target the extra resources on the poorest," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Past success
While pensioners are not expected to reverse the government's decision on its new pension credit, which will be launched on 6 October, pensioner protests have had some success in the past.
| What better way to launch the government's new pensions credit than over a nice cup of tea? |
The government's decision to increase the basic state pension by 75p a week in April 2000, was greeted with an outcry from pensioners and eventually led to a government u-turn. The basic state pension went up by �5 a week the following year for single pensioners and �8 for couples.
Rodney Bickerstaffe, NPC President, said: "The crisis in pensions is one that affects everyone and there is probably no more important domestic issue to millions of voters than how they will survive retirement.
"I hope the lobby will therefore highlight the need for a decent state pension as the best way of providing real security in retirement for all, both now and in the future."
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