Your report was somewhat selective in its presentation on how the budget affected pensioners (The Sunday Times, November 9). It took an individual receiving a pension of around €10,000 as an example and concluded that he would be better off by €99.

However, it failed to indicate how many pensioners receive around €10,000.

There are over 75,000 pensioners who receive a Social Security Pension alone or in combination with an occupational pension. More than 15,000 of them receive low pensions and, before the surge in electricity and water tariffs, were already at risk of poverty. One does not need much imagination to conclude that the budget and tariffs combined will affect them badly.

Of the remaining 60,000-plus pensioners, not more than 3,000 receive a pension of around €10,000. The rest (around 57,000) receive three-quarters of this amount, on average.

It would have been more correct to assess how the budget (and tariffs) affects pensioners by working on the basis of median or average pensions rather than a pension received by not more that four per cent of current pensioners.