The federal government will raise the aged pension by $11.50 a fortnight for single people and $17.40 for couples from September 20.

Single pensioner Bob Hollingsworth, 72, said the extra money would make no difference to his daily life.

He said the raise was tokenistic and allowed the government to claim it was helping pensioners.

“It’s two beers or a couple of cups of coffee,” he said.

“To make any sort of difference to anyone, really, you’ve got to be looking at $30 or $40.”

There are more than 15,000 aged pensioners in the Hunter. 

Mr Hollingsworth, a retired chef, said living on a modest income meant planning ahead and budgeting.

“How I live my life, I put $100 away a fortnight for bills,” he said.

“Over the year, that works out pretty well.”

Many aged pensioners have ­little or no superannuation funds to live on and rely solely on the pension.

Compulsory superannuation was introduced in Australia in 1992. 

By this time, many people of Mr Hollingsworth’s generation had most of their working life behind them.

National Party Duty Senator for the Hunter John Williams said the changes meant the maximum pension would be $854.30 a fortnight for single people and $1288 for couples.

He said pensions would ­continue to increase in March and September each year.

Recipients of the single parent payment will receive an extra $7.20 a fortnight as part of the changes.

The Newstart Allowance, Widow Allowance, Partner Allowance and Sickness Allowance will increase by $5.20 a fortnight for singles and $4.70 each for couples, including an energy bill supplement.