Myself  and local pensioner Val Soames have welcomed the planned boost to pensions 
this year.

The government will be putting an extra £2 billion into pensioners' pockets this
year through an increase of 2.5% and those who deferred their pension for at least
one year since 2005 will still get an extra State Pension that is 10.4% higher than
if they had not deferred. This is despite negative inflation figures for the past
year of -1.4%.

Pension Credit will also go up by 2% to £132.60 for single people and £204.40 for
couples. Pensioner households will now be on average around £1,500 a year better off
in 2009/10 due to these changes than they would have been in 1997 and the poorest
third of pensioner households will on average be around £2,100 a year better off.

This is great news for pensioners in Birmingham and across the
country. This year has been a difficult one but this government is ensuring that
pensioners don't suffer because of it.

This increase will really help my family outand it's thanks to the Labour government 
putting pensioners and hard working families first."