sON Monday I went to my local post office to pick up my pension, only to be told that "the system has crashed".

I now read in my morning paper that "post offices across Britain experienced severe problems with the system, leaving staff unable to authorise payments on the busiest day of the week. A spokeswoman admitted that thousands of Britain's pensioners and other claimants had been affected".

To say that I am surprised at this "cock-up" is the understatement of the year. As I write this the postman has delivered another letter from Post Office Card Account telling me that the name on my personal invitation document does not match the name given on my application form! For the life of me I have no idea what they are on about.

To make matters worse, if that is possible, I have been issued with a PIN number and a swipe-card, which is necessary for me to get my money out of the machine. Then in yesterday's post I got another PIN number. Maybe I'm going to get two pensions! Some hope.

On top of all of this my wife got a letter asking her to apply for a PIN number and in the same delivery a letter for her with a PIN number.

All of this strengthens the case for the return of our pension book.

If Bury Pensioners Association want a cause to campaign on the slogan must be: Give us back our pension book

P. KAISERMAN