The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament has welcomed the maintenance of the State Pension as well as the extra €40 in the fuel allowance.

Pensions, medical cards and the proposed water charges are set to be hot topics of discussion at the Irish Senior Citizens' Parliament in Dublin later.

FEARS people nearing retirement age will be forced to work longer before claiming their pensions have been eased by Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Pensioners will see an annual fall in their income of €600 as a result of Budget 2010, CEO of the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament Máiréad Hayes said this evening.

THE HSE has denied it is forcing future public nursing home residents to pay almost 20 times more for their care than those in the system, after a leading lobby group said any possibility of the move was “unjustifiable”.

ELDERLY representatives are expected today to reject the means test of the medical card and push for a campaign to restore its universal availability for those aged 70 years or over.

SOCIAL welfare recipients will not get a Christmas bonus payment this year while jobseekers under the age of 20 will have their welfare allowance halved to €100 a week.

SENIOR citizens last night called again on the Government to reverse its decision to remove the medical card from about 20,000 older people.

HUNDREDS of former aviation workers protested outside the Dáil yesterday, calling for their State pensions to be increased to match those of other public-sector retirees.