DIRE warnings of the problems facing pensioners today and the pensioners of the future were delivered by RMT yesterday.

The continuing abolition by bosses of occupational pension schemes and failure of state pensions to increase in line with wage increases have already left one in six older people in Britain struggling to survive on less than £175 a week, with six million, mainly women, receiving less than £10,500 a year.

But the future would be even worse and state pensions would be even more vital than today, said Tony Geraghty of RMT’s retired members section.

“We are asking the union to pay more attention, and focus more on the state retirement pension,” he said.

“In years to come, if trade unions do not pay more attention to the state pension, workers will have nothing to rely on. We need to campaign for a state pension that gives dignity in retirement,” he said.

Shelley Fulton, a catering worker with P&O ferries in Dover, said at 60 she did not know if she would be capable of working to the age of 67 — or what pension she would eventually have.

“They are going to take us all back to Victorian times,” she said.

The conference voted unanimously to strengthen links with pensioner groups.