THANK you for your article (EA April 19) on pensions, it will be a great help to pensioners who want to claim what you say is rightfully theirs.

Following the introduction of Pensions Credits, additional spending on pensioners as a result of measures introduced since 1997 will be £9.2 billion in 2004/05, of which £4.3 billion will be on the poorest third of pensioners and more than five times as much as an earnings link to the State Pension would have given them.

The total expenditure is £5.7 billion more than had the basic pension been linked to earnings since 1998.

Compared with the 1997 system, as a result of the Government's measures, on average from October 2003 pensioner households will be £1,250 a year better off in real terms. The poorest third of pension households will have gained £1,600.

Frank Avenell seems to think there is some shame in receiving more money by answering a few questions stating one's circumstances.

I think the Fairness To Pensioners group should help them get what they are entitled to, rather than to play politics with them.

His intention to help poor people pay council tax is admirable but the poor do not pay, the council tax benefit takes care of that.

M J WARNER

Malvern Road