Any increase in pensions is welcome, but if it is just going to be a one-off, it will not go very far

Rodney Bickerstaffe

The government has come under increasing pressure to increase the minimum pension after this year's 75p-a-week rise drew heavy criticism.

But the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has resisted calls to restore the link between earnings and pensions, arguing it would do little to help the worst off.

Instead he insists help should be targeted at the most needy with the Minimum Income Guarantee and the Pensioners Credit announced in the Budget.

'Restore the link'

The issue is certain to be raised at the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress which starts in Glasgow on 11 September and also at the Labour conference later in the month.

Bickerstaffe: Campaigning for pensioners

A key figure at both gatherings will be Rodney Bickerstaffe, general secretary of Unison, the UK's biggest union.

Responding to the reports, he said: "Any increase in pensions is welcome, but if it is just going to be a one-off, it will not go very far.

"What we need is the restoration of the earnings link and a much higher minimum basic pension."

Mr Bickerstaffe, who is likely to take over from Jack Jones as head of the National Pensioners Convention next year, said pensioners were "put off" from claiming Pensioners Credit, often because they did not understand the paperwork.

Pensions pressure

Single pensioners currently receive �67.50 a week, topped up under the minimum income guarantee to �78.45 for those without a private pension or savings of more than �8,000.

Tony Blair's father-in-law joined the pensions debate

A recent Commons Select Committee report recommended that pensioners should be guaranteed �90 a week.

Actor Tony Booth, the prime minister's father-in-law, is among those who have called on Tony Blair to restore the link between the annual pension rise and average earnings

He said this would free thousands of pensioners from reliance on state benefits.

The link between pensions and earnings was abolished by the Thatcher government in 1980. Instead, annual state pension rises are linked to inflation.