OLDER people across the south look set to have a powerful new voice, after it was agreed to set up a regional branch of the UK's biggest pensioner action group.

The National Pensioners Convention (NPC), which already represents more than 1million elderly people throughout the UK, is to set up a Wessex regional office covering Hampshire and the surrounding areas.

A steering group has been established to formally open the regional office following a meeting in Southampton, with representatives from Southampton, Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Eastleigh.

The meeting was chaired by city council leader, Councillor June Bridle. She said: "We have to make sure that those people entitled to receive benefits are getting those benefits. Part of that means doing simple things like making sure forms are easy to fill in, and getting the message across to people who are entitled."

Major issues the NPC wants to examine include pension levels, healthcare and transport.

A spokesman for the NPC, said: "The convention feels that every pensioner has the right to choice, dignity, independence and security as an integral and valued member of society.

"These rights require an adequate state pension linked to average earnings, comprehensive free health care and concessionary travel on public transport."

Joe Harris, NPC Secretary General, said: "It's wrong that people who work their whole life are not able to keep the same sort of lifestyle when they retire.

"There's some 770,000 elderly people in the UK not claiming the benefits they are entitled to, and this says something about the state of society."

Speaking about healthcare, he added: "People aren't living longer because when old they are being pumped full of drugs, it's because over the years, care for children and the middle-aged has improved so much that many more people are living to old age.

"That doesn't mean we should be penalised for it."

The regional office looks set to open its doors in about three months, after a formal vote scheduled for sometime in May to elect a chairman and treasurer.