INCREASES in the basic state pension announced by Gordon Brown last week are a step in the right direction.

But more still needs to be done, according to Malvern Age Concern.

The Chancellor said single pensions would rise by £5 and £8 for couples, from April next year. The following year, there will be an extra £3 and £4.80 respectively.

"It's a start but there's a lot more to be done," said George Waugh of Age Concern. "For a start, there needs to be a reduction in the amount of bureaucracy and red tape confronting poorer pensioners."

Mr Waugh said less well-off pensioners are faced with a barrage of paperwork to claim more than the basic state pensions.

"It puts a lot of them off claiming money that is rightfully theirs and which they need," he said.

Mr Waugh said the 75p rise earlier this year had offended many pensioners "They felt very insulted," he said. "In this day and age it does not even buy a cup of coffee, people were very upset about it."

Retired civil servants in Malvern are also backing calls for a fairer deal for the nation's pensioners.

A petition signed by millions of pensioners was presented to the Queen ahead of Mr Brown's announcement. Among the signatures were those collected in a joint effort by the Malvern and District branch of the Civil Service Pensioners' Association and Malvern and District Age Concern.

CSPA has 448 branch members, many of them veterans of DERA and its predecessors.

Douglas Nicoll, a member of the branch committee, said: "We're deeply concerned at the erosion of the standard of living of all who receive pensions from the government.

"Those who have contributed from their earnings throughout their working lives to ensure for themselves adequate old age and public service pensions were always promised that as pensioners they would share in the prosperity of the nation - the nation that over the past ten years has become the fourth richest in the World."