CAMPAIGNERS are setting down a pensioners' manifesto in a bid to ensure the "grey vote" is not ignored at the next General Election.

All political parties are being urged to back policies being drawn up by more than 800 groups, the National Pensioners Convention said.

A three-month debate, described as "the biggest consultation exercise ever staged among older people", will flesh out principles on issues such as pensions and income, health and care, transport and mobility, neighbourhood and community and active citizenship.

The final document will be endorsed at the Pensioners' Parliament in Blackpool on May 18-20, before being sent to all prospective parliamentary candidates.

Proposals include:

* Calling for the basic state pension to be raised to £105.45 a week for a single pensioner and to £160.95 for a couple from April.

* Means testing to be stripped from pension payments and benefits.

* Calling for the state pension to be increased annually in line with average earnings or inflation (Retail Price Index), whichever is the greater, to enable pensioners to share in the growing prosperity of the nation.

* Investigation into whether pensioners should be expected to pay increases in council tax bills which are unrelated to the increases in their state pension.

* A free annual health check and free long-term care and additional state funding for hospices.

* A £200 per pensioner household increase in the winter fuel allowance, plus an extra £100 for those aged over 80, is also proposed.

* The creation of a National Older Persons' Commission to scrutinise legislation and make recommendations to Parliament.

Launching the campaign NPC president Rodney Bickerstaffe said: "For the first time we will produce a collection of policies that all the political parties will be asked to support at the next General Election.

"In this way we will be able to show which candidates are supporting older people and then pensioners can cast their votes as they see fit. This unique exercise in pensioner power will no longer mean that older people can either be ignored or taken for granted by the politicians."

The force behind the creation of the document is the feeling among pensioners that they are treated as second-class citizens.

With 11 million people currently over the age of 60 and a very high proportion of them prepared to turn out and vote in elections, the power of the pensioner vote should not be under-estimated, the NPC warned.