Ivy Goodman, 67, spends one day a week at the Age Concern centre in Church End, Hendon. She says she would like to spend more time there, playing games and socialising with dozens of other senior citizens, but she cannot afford to.

It costs £5 for a meal and an afternoon at the centre and, like many other pensioners, Mrs Goodman is feeling the pinch.

“It’s really been getting worse, the economy is tight and my pension doesn’t stretch far enough,” she said. “I can’t go out as much as I’d like. Every day, every week the cost of living is going up.

“Sometimes you don’t notice it and then at the end of the week or fortnight you’ve spent more than your budget.

“Sometimes I go without because I can’t afford to live on the income I receive.

“If I couldn’t come here I don’t know what I’d do. I need the company of friends, but I just can’t afford to come here more than one day a week.”

While the whole population contends with rising inflation and the threat of recession, many pensioners are at the sharp end of this economic downturn.

The latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reveal that 61 per cent of single pensioners live on less than £10,000 per year, while 45 per cent of couples, who receive a joint payment, live on less than £15,000 between them.

The Government sets the poverty line for a single person at £151 per week, suggesting that a vast proportion of pensioners are living in poverty.

Stan Davison, chairman of the Barnet 55+ Forum, a group that represents the borough’s elderly residents, said: “People don’t get by on the state pension.

“You’ve only got to see that the minimum wage is £5.52. If you work a 35-hour week at minimum wage, you’ll be on more than the state pension.”

The basic state pension begins at £90.70 per week for a single person and £145.05 for couples.

However, pensioners with no other source of funding, such as a private pension or savings, can receive means-tested credits which raise their weekly pension income to £124.05 for a single person and £189.35 for a couple.

Mr Davison said: “It’s 100 years on from the pension first being conceived and we’re still fighting for decent payments.”

The situation has been compounded by food price rises, which have increased by an estimated seven per cent in the last year, and spiralling fuel prices.

A report published last week suggested energy bills could rise by more than 60 per cent this year.

Pensioners spend a higher proportion of their income on goods that are rising fastest in price, particularly food and fuel.

Until 1980 the annual rise in the basic pension was based on the rise in average income, which meant that it increased faster.

That was scrapped by the Thatcher Government and remains unrestored after 11 years of Labour Govern-ment, but a spokesman for the DWP promised that this correlation would be restored.

“The earnings link will be restored in 2012 or before the end of the next parliament,” he said. “Our pension reforms will make the state pension fairer and more generous.

“Millions of workers, many for the first time, will be enrolled into a workplace pension scheme, seeing their pension contributions matched pound for pound by an employer contribution and tax relief.”

Whether this is still the plan after the next election remains to be seen. And, anyway, Barnet pensions have at least another four years to wait at current levels.