Lib Dems court pensioners

Mr Kennedy said pensioners trusted the Lib Dems

The Liberal Democrats have suggested that only they will guarantee the future of the state pension.

The party said neither the Conservatives nor Labour would support the pension in the longer term.

Pensioners do trust us as a party and they know we deliver on our promises

Charles Kennedy

The Liberal Democrats are committed to increasing the basic state pension by £5 a week rising to £15 for the over 80s.

Party leader Charles Kennedy said pensioners could trust the Lib Dems because they had shown they keep their promises by delivering in Scotland.

"Pensioners do trust us as a party and they know we deliver on our promises because they can see that from ministerial action in one part of the UK," Mr Kennedy said.

He criticised Labour and Tory policy on pensions.

"In their 1997 manifesto, Labour promised that pensioners would 'share fairly in the increasing prosperity of the nation'.

"But since then there has only been a fall in the slice of national wealth spent on pensioner benefits.

"And they have been forced to pay for personal care, except in Scotland, where Liberal Democrats have guaranteed to pay the costs.

"What do the Conservatives offer older people? First they said they would increase pensions.

"They then acknowledged that would only be achieved by abolishing all the other benefits they received. They were rumbled and they did a U-turn."

He added: "It was Liberals at the beginning of the last century that introduced pensions and it is Liberal Democrats at the beginning of this century that is offering pensioners real change."

Free care

The party has also pledged to pay for the long-term care of elderly people.

"We will extend the principle already agreed in Scotland to extend free long-term care throughout whole of the UK ending the indignity and injustice of older families having to surrender the family home to cover costs of care," he said.

The increase in pensions would be paid for by the tax rises proposed by the Lib Dems.

This includes an extra penny on the basic rate of income tax and a 50% rate for those earning in excess of £100,000.

Mr Kennedy said: "We put forward a much more straightforward, costed approach."

The Conservatives hit back. Shadow social security secretary David Willetts said: "We have better policies for pensioners. We will take one million pensioners out of tax.

"We will offer all pensioners a choice between the various one-off payments and a tax-free consolidated payment on their weekly pension."