Campaigning pensioners from across Essex are to descend on Southend for a human rights march.

The elderly protesters are stepping up their campaign for their right to a fairer pension next Friday, July 30.

Hundreds of people are expected to take part in the rally.

Pension fighters Jeremy Corbyn, MP for London Islington North and Tessa Harding, chief development officer for Help the Aged, will be at the meeting in Centre Place Community Hall, Southend.

They are to give talks on the conditions of pensioners in today's world. Other speakers will include Alan Hurst, MP for Braintree and John Hall, the vice-president of the National Pensioners Convention.

Marchers will set off from Victoria Circus, near WH Smith. They will walk along Southend High Street and continue down Marine Parade to the Community Hall.

Members of the Essex Pensioners Action Association are demanding pensions be linked with average earnings again.

Old age pensions used to be linked with the rise in the average wage, but this link was destroyed by Margaret Thatcher in 1980. Now pensioners want it to be reintroduced.

Joe Simmons, editor of the Essex Pensioner, said: "At the moment a single pensioner gets £66.75 a week and a couple get £106.70 a week.

"It is a disgrace. It is humiliating that all they think we are worth is £66.75.

"The UKs basic state pension is one of the lowest in Europe. The government should do something to alleviate the poverty facing many of todays older people.

"This poverty is a direct result of the low pensions."

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