LOCAL MP Terry Lewis has told Chancellor Gordon Brown to announce a massive pension increase at this month's Labour Party Conference.

The Worsley left winger wants up to £10 on a single pensioner's payments and £15 for a couple.

And he wants to see the link between pensions and earnings -- scrapped in favour of tying the payment for senior citizens to prices by Margaret Thatcher.

Mr Lewis, who will become eligible for the pension when he turns 65 on December 29, has written to Mr Brown, currently on honeymoon in America, and copied the letter to Social Security Secretary Alistair Darling.

He reminds the Chancellor of the disastrous public reaction to the 75p rise in the basic state pension announced earlier this year.

Mr Lewis also recalls that he warned the Government of the effect of such a derisory increase and says that a major effort is now needed to recover the damage done to Labour with pensioners, their families and others.

The increases in payments for the hard-up, over-75s' free TV licences, and concessionary travel have done nothing to minimise the fall-out, Mr Lewis says, and have, in addition, incurred huge administrative overheads.

In his letter, he says that the simplest way to restore the damage and be fair to pensioners is to announce at the Labour Conference at the end of the month a significant increase in pension rates from next April.

He wants £10 on the basic state pension for a single man or woman of £67.50 and £15 a week on the married couple's total of £107.90.

And he wants the long overdue restoration of the link between pensions and earnings.

Mr Lewis said: "The Labour Party came under a lot of criticism for the derisory 75p increase. It is only fair that pensioners should share in the growing prosperity of the country.

Substantial

"Therefore I want to see a substantial increase in the basic state pension, which can be done with little extra administrative costs, and the restoration of the link between the pension and earnings."

Social Security Secretary Alistair Darling said: "The Government's first priority has been to help the poorest pensioners who lost out during the Tory years. We have done so and their pensions have risen by more than £5 on top of the rate of inflation.

"Our next priority is to help those pensioners with modest savings and we will be announcing proposals in this area later this year."