MPs call for increased pensions

Ninety pounds a week - that is the minimum that any pensioner in this country should expect to have to live on - and once that benchmark has been established, it should be regularly up-rated to prevent pensioners from falling behind relative to the rest of the population.

That is the basic message behind the report by a Committee of MPs published today.

More money

The influential Social Security Select Committee says there should be detailed research into how much pensioners need to live on...but it is clearly more than the £67.50 they get at the moment, and they broadly accept the estimate, by the charity Age Concern, that it should be set at ninety pounds a week.

The chairman of the Social Security Select Committee is the Liberal Democrat Archie Kirkwood. Mr Kirkwood insisted it was very important to establish some kind of minimum income standards for pensioners. He said it was "essential" that the Government dealt with people who were living below minimum income guarantee rates.

Many MPs are still hearing from pensioners dismayed by this year's 75p increase

Gordon Lishman, Director-General, Age Concern

Gordon Lishman, Director-General of Age Concern, said the committee had sent a "powerful message" to the Government, and that the basic state pension was not enough. Mr Lishman's agency, which contributed to the report, said his research showed that older people need a pension of at least #90 a week to avoid poverty.

I'm not saying it is the be all and end all. We have to do more. We have repeatedly said we want to do more

Jeff Rooker, Pensions Minister

The Pensions Minister Jeff Rooker said the committee had been "quite right" to study the issue of pensioner poverty, and that the Government would respond to the report formally within the two month time limit allowed. The minister said that it looked as though the committee had forward some positive recommendations.