MPs are to receive an annual pay rise from £79,468 to £81,932. That’s an extra £47.38 extra per week.

The rise will come into effect from April 1, 2020, the same day all those who reach their 80th birthday collect their very first Age Addition Allowance, a weekly monetary payment to top up their state pension.

The Age Addition Allowance is not abbreviated AAA and doesn’t have a triple A rating either.

More like an ‘X’ certificate, which suggests plenty of shocks in store.

The allowance pays a pitiful 25p a week and the government do not seem bothered, nor embarrassed to advertise the fact.

When this allowance was first introduced in 1971 singer Diana Ross topped the UK charts with ‘I’m still waiting’.

Today’s pensioners will be thinking exactly the same.

They’re still waiting... for some kind of a rise.

Stephen Dixon, Redcar