DEVON Pensioners' Action Forum took to the streets of Newton Abbot last Thursday, as part of the National Pensioners' Week protests across the country.
Newton Abbot pensioners were joined by colleagues from all over the county – one couple came from Combe Martin, north Devon.
More than 30 pensioners – ages ranged from 53 to 83 – demonstrated energetically outside the Department of Work and Pensions at Sherbourne House.
The town welcomed the pensioners and tooted car horns in support of their stand about the need to improve pensions. 'Tell Tony Blair what he can do,' shouted one passing motorist.
'Pensions aren't what they should be,' said Albert Venison, regional co-ordinator for the Devon pensioners.
'Where are we going to get the money?' asked Ann Huxtable, 63, from Exmouth: 'The pension is a pittance and expenses keep rising. It's a total disgrace that people our age have to come out and do this.'
Her husband, Patrick, 69, said: 'We've paid taxes all our working lives and raised a family. Now we're spending our life savings paying tax bills.'
Peter and Margaret Fountain, of Dawlish, agreed with them. 'We need a living pension,' said Mrs Fountain. 'The British pension is too low. It doesn't stretch to cover living expenses.'
'Pensions increase in fractions; council tax increases in leaps and bounds,' said Mr Fountain, 83. Stephen McGrevey, 53, a retired civil servant, blamed the council tax for pensioners' problems. 'It's because council tax is so unfair,' he said. 'The government has just spent £60 million on a new computer system that doesn't work properly. The total council tax bill for Devon is £59.7 million.'
The pensioners chanted slogans in their determination to get their message across. All carried immaculate placards, pithily worded and correctly punctuated, a sure sign of the superiority of education in the days when they were at school.
There was only one spelling error 'DWP research says means tested benefits "Shamefull dependency".' Perhaps it was deliberate, to mean totally full of shame.
l THE annual meeting of the Devon Pensioners' Action Forum is being held in the offices of South West Water, Peninsula House, Rydon Lane, Exeter, on Saturday, April 8, at 11am.