PHIL Kaiserman is a mild mannered man, well known for his reasoned arguments in support of anything he feels is an injustice.

But at the age of 78 and recovering from a slight stroke, he was all prepared to "go over the top" -- by dressing up in a monkey suit fancy dress and handing out peanuts to local Labour MPs.

It was only some stern persuasion from friends -- who feared it might not do his health any good -- that made him call it off at the eleventh hour.

But that is how angry Bury man Mr Kaiserman and many of his "senior citizen" friends felt when they were given a 75p a week Old Age pension rise this spring.

He said: "With hindsight I wish I had gone ahead with it. At least it would have generated some publicity."

Mr Kaiserman is founder and now vice chairman of Bury Pensioners' Association which has campaigned long and hard for a fair deal from the government for OAPs.

His organisation is backing the growing campaign, which was started by former Trade Union boss Jack Jones's National Pensioners' Convention.

They are demanding that when the Government announces the next pensions increase in November, there is an increase of at least £9 a week.

That is the least they will accept. But ideally, they say, pensioners need £30 a week more to restore the balance against average national earnings.

Breightmet man Brian Derbyshire, a prolific letter writer to the BEN, is only 58 but he has been a fervent campaigner for pensioners.

He said: "I have worked it out and £30 is the rise that would be needed to bring pensions up to what they would have been if Margaret Thatcher had not severed the link with the national earnings. Only years of erosion have shown what that Thatcher move meant."

His latest campaign is to raise the savings "ceiling" which governs when people who rely solely on the state pension can claim top-up help.

"In many cases those savings are what I call 'undertaker's money' and should have no bearing on what a person can claim for a basic standard of living," said Mr Derbyshire. "Pensioners need a bit of capital they can use for household items, because the low income their pension gives them means that they can't get credit."

The national campaign for a pensions increase, supported by such powerful voices as Age Concern and Help the Aged, has taken on a new momentum with the backing of some of the country's biggest daily newspapers.

And after seeing how mass protest over fuel prices can shake the government, some pensioners are squaring up for a battle.

"I have never known the mood of pensioners to be as determined as it is at present," said Mr Kaiserman. "I started the Bury organisation in 1984 with the main aim of getting fair rise in pensions. But pensioners are still hard up.

"The idea for the monkey suit earlier this year came after Jack Jones, now president of the National Pensioners' Convention, protested at the 75p rise by saying 'If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys'."

Some pensioners in Bolton and Bury joined the national campaign and posted 75p packets of peanuts to Tony Blair.

A spokeswoman for Age Concern -- which has a busy operation in Bolton -- said: "We want the government to carry out proper research into what a pensioner needs to have a decent standard of living. Our own research shows that a minimum £90 is needed to avoid poverty."

"We welcome the government's Minimum Income Guarantee, but the problem there is that it involves means testing and we know that people don't claim either through pride or because they don't understand the system.

"The DSS's own figures are that there are 870,000 people in Britain entitled to Income Support who don't claim it."

The government has already said it plans to peg the pensions rise to the rate of inflation.

But Jack Thain, general secretary of the National Pensioners' Convention, believes such a move would come back to haunt Tony Blair and will turn out to be a far more crucial vote decider than the price of petrol when the next general election comes round.

Phil Kaiserman is sure Mr Thain is right. Phil Kaiserman founder and now vice chairman of Bury Pensioners' Association which has campaigned long and hard for a fair deal from the government for OAPs