The Conservatives will today call for an end to "humiliatingly complex" means testing.

David Willetts, the shadow pensions secretary, will use his speech to the second day of the Tories' conference on compassionate Conservatism to accuse ministers of creating a pensions system that has cost billions of pounds but failed the most needy.

Iain Duncan Smith told delegates yesterday that Labour had failed to tackle poverty, drug addiction and crime on housing estates, and instead increased the tax burden on low-paid families.

But he conceded the party still had a mountain to climb before it could unseat Labour.