PENSIONERS claim they have been ignored by the budget handed down on Tuesday night.

And they have spoken of continuing hardships of trying to make ends meet in the face of rising fuel and food prices.

“What are they going to do about food prices?” asked John Sperring of Nowra.

“We’re battling to live.”

Mr Sperring said the sewerage at his house was blocked, but “I can’t afford to get it fixed”.

And many others were in similar financial straits, he said.

“A lot of the people I know, they haven’t been able to buy a new piece of clothing for years,” Mr Sperring said.

“We live out of the Salvation Army and St Vinnies.”

In addition “everyone’s battling to find the money for food”, according to Mr Sperring.

With the pension running at about $270 per week, “you exist, you don’t live,” Mr Sperring said.

Self-funded retiree Terry Watts of Culburra Beach went one step further, calling aged payments “the death pension – you wait to die because you can’t afford to do anything else”.

He questioned why working people were being given tax cuts to effectively put more money in their pockets, while pensioners were getting nothing more.

“If a working couple needs all this money, why wouldn’t a couple of pensioners need it, especially when they’ve got all the added medical expenses to cover?” Mr Watts asked.

“It’s just dreadful.”

Medical expenses were raised as a major cost to pensioners, with John Allan of Bomaderry saying, “some of the costs are unbelievable”.

Following an operation Mr Allan was on 23 different types of medication, requiring a considerable outlay over the following weeks and months as the number of tablets slowly reduced.

But the costs of medications were having a worrying impact, with some pensioners saying they were taking below their recommended levels in an effort to make their medicines stretch.

“A lot of people can’t even afford to buy their medicine at all,” Mr Sperring said.

Others were struggling with things such as rates notices, and facing the real possibility of losing their homes because of it.

“A lot of people are in that situation,” Mr Sperring said.

“They can’t afford the rates, and the councils can just take your home,” he said.