Pensioners in Keighley are appealing to the Queen to support their call for a higher state pension.

Keighley and District Pensioners Action Group is collecting names for a national petition urging the queen to ask her ministers to restore the link between pensions and average earnings.

Members say the move is essential to break the cycle of hardship endured by some pensioners who find it difficult to live on the current state pension of £67.50 a week.

Their calls have come in the same week that an all party select committee of MP's said pensioners should receive at least £90 a week. The action group discussed the issue with Keighley MP Ann Cryer when she paid members a visit on Monday.

Secretary Felvus Sunderland says: "Since 1980, when the government broke the link with average earnings, the value of the pension has gone down, and will continue to go down until the link is restored.

"If it carries on in the same way, by 2025 the value of the pension will be nominal and people won't be able to exist off it.

"Although we get rises linked to the rate of inflation we don't get them until the start of the financial year in April. Even though a lot of older people sell their homes and go into sheltered accommodation their savings gradually go down and they find they can't live on their pension.

"There has to be some alteration in the way the pension is paid or people in this country will become destitute."

Mr Sunderland adds that although the winter fuel allowance has increased by £50 to £150 and over 75's don't have to pay for a TV license, many still struggle to get by.

Mrs Cryer says: "I feel it is a better safety valve to have a good earnings-related state pension. I've argued that since being elected and have always been in agreement with what the group has said. The government has done a lot of things to improve the situation, like increasing winter fuel payments and free eye tests.

"However, there is a danger that some people, through pride or lack of knowledge, will not claim their full allowance and will go short."

The petition to the queen has been organised by the National Pension-ers' Convention, which is seeking a substantial increase in the basic pension and further increments. It says the basic pension would be worth £97.45 if the link with average earnings had not been broken .

The Commons social security select committee has called on Chancellor Gordon Brown to increase the basic state pension "sooner rather than later" to the £90 suggested by Age Concern.