HOW I agree with the letter about pensions from Frank L Jones (You Say, Tuesday, December).

However, he infers that £105 per week is some munificent sum that would see pensioners lifted out of the poverty in which many now find themselves. It won't.

Even that sum is a disgrace and an outrage by any civilised standards - more so from a Labour Government that I personally will stop voting for, after 50 years' at the next General Election.

I am more fortunate than a lot of elderly people in that I have an occupational pension (to which I contributed 11 per cent of my salary for when I was working) and, consequently, I am entitled to a "basic" state pension.

For this I worked for 42 years without a day's unemployment - unless National Service in the Army is classed as "unemployment". I contributed high taxation and National Insurance payments.

I have been eligible to draw my state pension for the past three years and I have seen the derisory yearly increases more than wiped out by the annual council tax increases. In effect, my income is going backwards.

A letter to Minister Nick Raynsford met with a response from a rather low-ranking Civil Servant who, in effect, put out the party line that "pensioners had never had it so good".

He said that when I was a bit older I would qualify for a free TV licence and an extra £100 one-off payment when I reached 70.

When I responded to this insult, another Civil Servant responded by e-mail wanting to know who sent the first response to me, presumably because neither my e-mail nor the reply could be found.

That is the regard and attention one receives by writing to the Minister responsible.

An e-mail to the Prime Minister asking what justice there was for pensioners when certain young, fit persons received a 25 per cent reduction in their council tax, and pensioner couples paid the full amount, did not even merit a reply.

Elderly people on state pensions would do well to understand that they figure at the bottom of the pecking order, both with this and Conservative Governments, and no magical policies are going to alter this.

For those thinking of contributing to a Pension Scheme or saving for old age, don't. You will make more from pension "benefits" if you retire penniless.

M CLIFT,

Worcester.