SCORES of pensioners held demonstrations across the region yesterday calling for a boost to the state pension.

The show of so-called "grey power" came on the day that the Government's means-tested Pension Credit came into effect.

Works and Pensions Minister Chris Pond visited Gateshead yesterday and said that half of pensioner households would be better off by about £400 a year thanks to the credit.

The Government said the Pension Credit would target extra money at the poorest pensioners, ensuring no one over 60 had less than £102.10 a week for a single person, and £155.80 for a couple.

He said it would also reward people over 65 with modest amounts of savings, with extra payments of up to £14.79 for a single person and £19.20 for a couple.

But campaigners argued that many of those who needed help would miss out because they were unwilling to undergo means-testing or found the credit too complicated to claim.

They called for the restoration of the link between the basic state pension and average earnings.

The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) yesterday published a guide to the new credit, and said it would undermine the role of the basic state pension while costing up to ten times as much to administer.

Because full rewards for savings were available only to over-65s with unbroken National Insurance contributions, it would discriminate against women aged 60 to 64, many of whom took career breaks to bring up their children, according to the guide.

NPC northern region chairman Frank Lott said: "Pensioners remember the means-testing horror of the past and do not want it.

"What we want is a revitalised national pension and a restoration of the link to average earnings.

"We do not see ourselves as beggars. We have contributed to the Natioanl Insurance all our lives."

Demonstrators visited local authorities in Newcastle, Gateshead, Tyneside, Sunderland, Durham, Darlington, Hartlepool, Stockton, Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland.

The National Association of Pension Funds also voiced concerns about Pension Credits.

Spokesman Andy Fleming said: "It adds more complexity to an already-muddled system.

"There is a very real danger that many of the poorest pensioners will not claim the benefits they are entitled to."

Mr Pond, however, defended the Pension Credit.

He said: "We are significantly boosting pensioners' incomes and doing it in such a way that the increases help where they are needed most.

"We have found a way of doing that without the old-fashioned weekly means-test, which many pensioners found so demeaning."

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