Anyone who retired prior to April 2016 who is now in receipt of a full UK state pension only gets £137.60 per week for 2020/2021 but anyone who retired after April 2016 who gets the full state pension gets £179.60 per week.

Even the higher pension rate is too low for most people to be able to have a reasonable retirement, if that is their only income and to get £42 per week less is an insult after working and contributing into the system for up to 50 years. Even if the triple lock was being kept in place to increase both pension rates for 2021/2022 then both pensions would still be amongst the lowest in comparative western countries but as the government has reneged on their manifesto pledge to maintain the triple lock and has removed the average earnings part, then we will get much less next year than the triple lock would have given us.

This appears to me to be against the 2010 Equality Act as it is a kind of age discrimination and we must all be treated equally and be given the same weekly pension, regardless of when we started receiving our state pensions, under UK law.

With the rapidly increasing costs of both gas and electricity that we are currently experiencing then many pensioners will again be having to choose between eating and heating and we need to help them all to be treated equally, regardless of their ages.