In the Pre-Budget Report, the government announced the new rates for the basic state pension from April 2009.

These will increase by 5% - in line with the rise in the Retail Prices Index to September 2008 - making the single person's pension £95.25 per week and a married couple's pension £152.30 per week.

The government is committed to bringing basic state pension increases back in line with earnings inflation, although this will not happen until 2012 at the earliest. Ironically on this occasion an earnings-linked increase would have produced a smaller number.

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The basic state pension remains inadequate, a fact the government has acknowledged with the introduction of Pension Credit. Unless you want a subsistence retirement, you must have other pension provision.

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