Cold and alarming plight for pensioners

Sir, – It is not often that I can agree with Mrs Maaike Cook, but I do today (Letters, August 15, Forgotten pensioners are just left to suffer in silence). Pensioners that have no private or occupational pension are being dropped into the heator-eat pit. The only respite is the pension credit uplift, which in this cost-of-living crisis currently unfolding will not suffice.

Their added needs are such that turning down the heat dial is not realistic for those with health conditions that are alleviated by heat. Throwing on the old thermal vest, tights, jumper or fleece and that wee hat may help, but the driving energy costs add additional stress to a post-work life – something to be looked forward to, but not for the next couple of years.

Serious support for them is required. Targeting (that is, the nasty pair of words “means testing”) should be used, and as a chief secretary to the treasury stated on Friday last, why should high earners benefit from the £400 support being currently offered across the full population?

Heat banks and the like are interesting social experiments, and community centres, resources centres and hubs should be included in the relief provisions. We have been here before, where casual labourers huddle round braziers, warming themselves while waiting to get employment.

Can I ask the readership of this publication to select and provide regular monthly monetary support to local foodbanks and charities so that these organisations can purchase those important items not regularly donated, even for the next six months, prior to and through the winter?

It is indeed more than sad

that the UK, a prosperous nation, has the worst state pension in the G20, which is – by the written and verbal accounts of recipients – inadequate.

Alistair Ballantyne. Birkhill,

Angus.