SIR I refer to G Tasker's letter (T&A, July 13) concerning his view that the pensioners are not that badly off.

England has one of the lowest pensions in Europe if not the lowest. The European Poverty Directive in 2000 was an income of at least £205 per week. British pensioners do not get that.

Moreover, increasingly pensioners are having to sell their homes to receive private nursing care a free' NHS, we are told.

Social services budgets have been slashed affecting the elderly due to the Iraq war.

If the dynamic duo of Blair and Brown slashed the new generation of nuclear missiles £25 billion cost to the taxpayer and made the fat cats' pay the £36 billion in tax evasion, pensioner poverty would be eliminated (some pensioners only get around £80 to £90 per week), without raising the retirement age to 68.

The elderly should be given greater revenue and the idea of linking pensions to earnings was a con trick a cheat and all the major political parties are guilty of this.

Pensioners are badly off!

David Clayton, Belgrave Road, Keighley