A senior has hit out over a four percent pension rise that reached bank accounts this month, complaining that it should have been backdated to its announcement in February.

Madeline Watkins, 85, said she felt it was wrong that a recent salary hike for Parliamentarians was backdated to April when the four percent rise for seniors only kicked in seven months after it was announced in the budget.

Mrs. Watkins, from Warwick, also complained that an almost eight percent rise in HIP (the Hospital Insurance Plan) from April 1 meant struggling pensioners were feeling the financial pinch.

?HIP went up from April 1 but the seniors? pension rise did not go up until September 15,? she said. ?This means the seniors were paying the extra for HIP before they got their rise, which is most unfair.

?The politicians voted themselves a large rise retroactive to April 1,? she said. ?The way this Government treats the seniors is absolutely horrific.

?I?m going to be 86 soon, and I will keep battling for seniors. Quite a few have called the talk shows to talk about their disappointment and to ask why the rise can?t be retroactive to April.?

Louise Jackson, Shadow Minister for Seniors, said she shared Mrs. Watkins? concerns.

?Surely the health insurance should not outweigh their pensions. That?s just an insult to seniors ... there are people who need every penny in order to live. It?s a nightmare for seniors who only have their pensions to live on,? she said.

She pledged that her party would reform the pension plan and adjust HIP ?when we become the Government?.

Asked for specifics, she said: ?We have to sit down and figure out what?s viable, and what the Government can afford.?

The monthly HIP premium for seniors rose from $161.14 in 2005/6 to $173.84 in 2006/7 ? an increase of 7.9 percent.

The monthly pension rate rose by four percent this year compared to last, with the new rate for the basic contributory pension being $826.07 and the approximate maximum pension standing at $1,069.

A Ministry of Finance spokesperson said: ?In keeping with established practice, pension increases are always effective on September 15, to coincide with the start of the fiscal year of the fund. The most recent increase is the sixth in eight years and, at four percent, represents an absolute increase of $31.77 in basic pension benefits. The approximate absolute dollar increase for the maximum pension paid from the Contributory Pension Fund is about $42, far higher than the increase in HIP premiums which also came into effect this year.?

He added: ?It should also be noted that the most recent pension increase comes on the heels of a 3.5 percent increase in August, 2005, which followed a 9 percent increase in 2004 and a three percent increase in 2003.

?HIP premium increases are effective on April 1 of each year, to coincide with the start of the fiscal year of the HIP fund. Government decided to shelter seniors from a portion of the HIP increase and set up a specific premium for all seniors.?