I COULDN'T agree more with the letter sent in by George K Brown, January 6.

National Insurance is the way forward. Had this excellent scheme been run efficiently by Governments past, ample money would be available now, and in the future, for pensions.

Pensioners, and future pensioners, should not have their incomes put in jeopardy because of Government mismanagement of funds.

It's too late for the over 50s to do anything about a personal pension. They have paid into a Government scheme that promised them a decent old age, and that's what they must be guaranteed.

If people do not agree with their MP's views on pensions - or anything else - they should let them know. If all the over 50s took the trouble to write just one letter to their MP, demanding that pensions be re-linked to wages and that all pensioners got an immediate substantial rise - giving them something of what is rightfully theirs - then the MPs would have to sit up and take notice.

Pensions have steadily declined - in real terms - since Thatcher broke the link with wages, and the over 50s have the power to get that link mended.

Pensioners are a growing group of VIPs with the power to influence Governments. Make your views known.

Brian Derbyshire

Ribchester Grove, Bolton

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