Pensioners still lobbying for earnings link

Pensioners are due to march on London today to stage a mass rally demanding the restoration of the link between pensions and earnings.

Pensioners are due to march on London today to stage a mass rally demanding the restoration of the link between pensions and earnings.

Jack Jones, President of the National Pensioners Convention, and other campaigners for the elderly were discussing their demands at a meeting with the Prime Minister.

Officials from the NPC were also due to meet Chancellor Gordon Brown ahead of his pre-budget statement. He is expected to increase the basic state pension by £5 a week for a single person, rising to an extra £8 for couples.

Pensioners were infuriated after they were awarded a "derisory" 75p increase in last year's budget.

Since then, the NPC has expanded, gathering a half-million signature petition calling for substantial pensions increases and the return of the earnings link.

The petition was to be handed in to Buckingham Palace before pensioners, expected to number around 2,000, attended a rally at the Central Methodist Hall in Westminster.

Speakers at the rally included veteran MP Tony Benn, Baroness Castle and Tony Booth, the Prime Minister's father-in-law.

A spokesman for the NPC welcomed the reports of a £5 per week boost, but said the restoration of the earnings link was vital if the hike was to be worth anything.

He said: "If it is true, the extra £5 a week would be a welcome step in the right direction.

"The fact that the two most influential politicians in the country are meeting with us shows that our message must be getting through."

He added: "This is a direct result of the pressure we have brought to bear on the Government in the last few months.

"But it will mean nothing if the earnings link is not restored and if we go back to a 75p rise next year.

"We need a substantial increase to reflect the money lost since the earnings link was scrapped in 1980 - that is vital."

If that link was still in place, pensioners would be getting a minimum £97.45 a week, £30 more than at the moment, the spokesman said.

Age Concern England, one of the groups meeting the Prime Minister today, said that pensioners needed a minimum of £90 a week to live on.

A spokeswoman said: "We will be telling the Prime Minister that the earnings link must be restored, but also that the Government should conduct regular research into what pensioners actually need to live on.

"We have calculated that a single pensioner needs £90 a week, excluding housing costs, with older pensioners perhaps needing more because they may be disabled."

Rodney Bickerstaffe, general secretary of public service union Unison, also attending the rally, said: "We have a very simple message for the Chancellor: pensioners deserve a decent state pension.

"A £5 increase may offer a short-term boost to pensions, but unless a regular uprating such as the link with earnings is restored, the basic state pension will continue to wither on the vine."

Before the rally, former Labour cabinet minister Barbara Castle said the Chancellor must put pensioners before any fuel tax cut in his pre-Budget report.

Taxes should be kept on fuel to curb pollution, she said.

"For goodness sake, when will we learn that the happiness and health of all of us is threatened by global warming," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"My one complaint about the Government is that it has not linked this petrol increase to the fact that our weather is going to be ruined."