PENSIONERS living on as little as £150 a week warned yesterday that GST and cuts to their benefits would make living a comfortable life in Jersey desperately difficult.

Around 80 senior citizens met in St Brelade yesterday to issue a resounding ‘no’ to a goods and services tax. The vast majority of them signed a petition calling for the introduction of the goods and services tax to be abandoned until alternatives to raising and saving money had been properly investigated. The Consumer Council petition now has more than 10,000 names and will be presented to the States next month before a mass rally in the Royal Square planned for 8 September. The senior citizens met at Communicare, in St Brelade, to listen to Deputy Alan Breckon, the chairman of the Consumer Council, who is spearheading the ‘No to GST’ protest. Sue Duhamel, of Employment and Social Security, addressed the meeting on the impact of the proposed new income support scheme, which is expected to get States approval in the autumn.