PENSIONERS who lived and fought through the Second World War today launched a bitter attack on politicians, saying: "We have been betrayed."

The scathing criticism was aimed at all the political parties as "war generation" senior citizens gathered for the 57th annual conference of Pensioners Voice.

President Dorothy Rhodes said: "We know what we want: a good basic income, secure community care, back-up for carers and thought for the victims, not perpetrators, of crime.

"We also want a Government that knows what it is doing, both the party in power and the opposition.

"Pensioners everywhere live in fear of losing their homes and everything they possess should they be forced into residential of nursing home care.

"The Government's consultative document, A New Partnership for Care In Old Age, is a pitiful response to the problem.

"Only the well off will be able to contemplate private insurance.

"Under the Government's proposals, the rest will risk losing even the £10,000 of capital which is supposed to be disregarded."

Pensioners' Voice, a pressure group which fights for the rights of all senior citizens, was holding its conference at the Floral Hall, Southport.

Blackburn-based general secretary Robert Stansfield added: "Pensioners from all our branches all over the country will assemble at Southport today to put their resolutions, later to be conveyed to ministers and the all-party parliamentary group for pensioners.

"The war-time generation of pensioners have every reason to feel left out and betrayed in the rush to privatise everything that moves.

"Not only are their pensions and community care services being cut, but the community on which they depend is gradually falling apart.

"Not the least of their worries is the rising cost of funerals.

"The average cost of a funeral with burial in Britain has risen by 38 per cent in the last three years, while the RPI has risen just seven per cent. "The Government is aware of the problem caused by multi-national companies monopolising the market but refuses to act.

"Pensioners' Voice would like to see the capital disregard for pensioners on Income Support substantially raised from £3,000, last reviewed in 1982 to take account of rising funeral costs."

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