More than 30 representatives from pensioners' groups in Oxfordshire will urge MPs to provide better services for older people.

A coach, organised by retired members of the Transport & General Workers' Union, will take the campaigners to London on Tuesday.

Top of their list of demands will be more funding for social services in the county.

Cuts in services for pensioners were announced last month, when Mary Robertson, the county council's director of social services, said the department would be £5.4m in the red if it did not make substantial savings by the end of the financial year.

The criteria used to assess people's care needs are being tightened as part of the cut-backs and elderly people already receiving help will have their needs reassessed.

Jessie MacLachlan, chairman of the Oxfordshire Pensioners' Action Group, said: "We're concerned that social services has got to make yet more cuts. This will reduce the number of people who can live independently in their own homes, which will throw a heavier load on to hospitals.

"If you have good social services people can be discharged from hospital earlier because they will have adequate help at home."

OXPAG secretary Michael Hugh-Jones said the cuts were deplorable, but the group realised that they were mainly due to inadequate Government funding.

Before the campaigners meet MPs, they will attend a health action rally, organised by the National Pensioners' Convention, highlighting issues such as age discrimination in the NHS.

Mr Hugh-Jones said: "Elderly people tend to get shunted down the list in hospitals. If there's nowhere for them to go when they do get better and they cannot look after themselves, they're said to be blocking beds."

The Government will also be urged to end its policy of docking people's state pensions if they spend more than six weeks in hospital.