§ Mr. Don Dixon (Jarrow)With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I beg leave to present a petition on behalf of the pensioners of the Tyne and Wear and Durham area bearing more than 5,000 signatures.
I, too, am pleased that the Secretary of State for Social Services is here because the petition is protesting that next Monday, 26 November, is uprating day for Britain's pensioners. On that day they will qualify for a meagre increase in their pensions. However, it is one week late. The increase should have been paid this week. The Government have invented a 53-week year and delayed the pension increase, thus robbing pensioners in Great Britain of £35 million. This is the second time in six years that the Government have held up the pension increase. The last time was by two weeks.
It is appropriate that the petition, which is about pensioners, is presented today at the beginning of an important debate on the protection of life at its very inception. I have no doubt that hon. Members will be presenting very strong arguments on the Warnock report.
My hon. Friend the Member for Tyne Bridge (Mr. Cowans) is presenting the petition with me. It reads:
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House will pass legislation to repay the increase which has been lost to pensioners by the delay of one week.And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.