FED-UP Hampshire pensioners descended on Westminster yesterday to lobby MPs for an increase in the basic state pension.

A group of 25 Southampton pensioners joined thousands of retired people who had converged on parliament to protest against this year's 2.5 per cent rise in the state pension - equating to £2 a week.

The region's MPs heard how pensioners have to fill out "complicated and degrading" forms just to receive a minimum income guarantee.

But former pensions minister and Southampton Itchen MP John Denham believes there is no simple solution.

He said it would require an increase in taxes to cover a large rise in the state pension.

City pensioner Frank Bardsley, 72, from Coxford, said: "The recent rise in council tax was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"We've paid our taxes but when you go to claim your pension they say you cannot have it all.

"The government has spent it instead of investing it."

Organised by the National Pensioners' Convention, the mass lobby of MPs hoped to raise awareness of pensioners' demands.

They want to see:

An immediate rise in state pensions to the level of the government's minimum income guarantee - £102 for a single pensioner and £155 for a couple.

Future yearly increases linked to average earnings.

An end to means-testing, which is expensive to administer.

Personal tax allowance raised to £180 a week.

Jon Harper, 64, of Montague Close, Southampton, who led the Southampton Pensioners' Forum trip, said: "The forms that pensioners have to fill out are complicated and degrading. People don't want to show how poor they are.

"It's our generation that has helped make this country the fourth richest in the world but we are not getting anything back.

"We want to see pension increases linked to average earnings."

Southampton Itchen MP John Denham said: "I'll be writing to the Treasury and the Department of Work and Pensions about a number of issues raised today."