A CAMPAIGN to win pensioners a better deal at Christmas has been launched in Burnley and Pendle.

People across the area are being urged to support a push for the old-folk's festive bonus from the government to be increased from £10 to £70.

The crusade is being led by the local Trades Union Councils and the North West Pensioners' Association, who have timed the launch to draw attention to the hardship old folk can face over Christmas.

Campaign leaders say the Labour government has a moral responsibility to improve the lot of senior citizens. They want supporters to write to the two local Labour MPs, Peter Pike and Gordon Prentice.

Geoff Wood, spokesman for Pendle Trades Union Council, said that when the pensioners' Christmas bonus was introduced in the early 1970s, "it was enough to buy extra food and drink, with a little left over to purchase small luxuries.

"But it has remained pegged down to £10 for 20 years. If it had been increased annually, in line with the cost of living, it would now be £70.

"The government wants to do away with the bonus altogether and use the money to help 'less well-off' pensioners, which is nonsense because very few pensioners are well-off."

Burnley Trades Union Council president Tommy Fallows said: "It must be embarrassing for grandparents at Christmas when they have so little to spend on their grandchildren. It is a question of dignity.

"Christmas is a good time to highlight the issue, but it is an all-year-round problem. Pensioners are paid £18 a week less than they would be if the pension had been raised in line with the cost of living."

A spokesman for the Pensioners' Association said the old people's movement was getting stronger by the day: "In Burnley, the number of people reading The North West Pensioner magazine has tripled in the last three months."

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