Gordon Brown announced that from October next year, the pension credit will be available to nearly half all pensioner households.

The measure will be worth up to £14 extra per week for single pensioners

And Alan Milburn will announce how the extra annual average 6 per cent real terms growth in social services budgets will improve community care for the elderly.

Forum Response: BUPA

A spokesman for BUPA told ePolitix.com: "In his CSR the chancellor confirmed his Budgetary announcements that health would receive nearly 7.5 percent a year extra for five years, and local authority funded social care would receive 6 percent a year extra for three years. To fund these increases the chancellor increased the rate of employer and employee National Insurance contributions.

"It is estimated that this increase in NI contributions will cost the care homes sector approximately £50 million. Coupled with the fact that past increases in personal social services spending have not always been passed on to care home operators by local authorities, it is easy to see how more money alone will do little to stem the tide of nursing home closures.

"Approximately 70 percent of BUPA's 16,000 care home residents rely on local authority funding. BUPA is a provident association. This means that it reinvests all surpluses back into the business in order to provide better and more care for its customers. Consequently, as a care services provider it relies heavily on the fees it receives from local authorities as they go directly towards improving the level of care residents receive, not to share holders."Local Authorities need to reflect central government's commitments by spending the money provided for care homes on care homes. The government may wish to consider whether these funds need to be ring fenced in order to ensure they reach the people for which they are intended."

Forum Response: Age Concern

A spokesperson for Age Concern told ePolitix.com: "We welcome serious consideration of the pensions crisis but consultation can only go on for so long. We all know what the problems are and action is needed urgently.

"The Pension Credit is well-intentioned and for the first time will reward people who have saved for their future. But there is a danger that the government will end up in credit and not pensioners. Already more than £1 billion in means-tested benefits goes unclaimed because the system is so complicated. The Pension Credit could add to this mountain of cash."

"More investment in social care is crucial to improve the quality of life of thousands of older people. This is an important step forward. Help at home is just as important as a good health service. But we need to make sure the money does what it should to provide a decent quality of care to all older people who need it."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs at Help the Aged, told ePolitix.com: "The crisis in care for older people has been ignored by the Chancellor in the Comprehensive Spending Review.

"The chronic underfunding of social care has led to a haemorrhaging of long term care places and a serious reduction in the number of older people receiving essential home care.

"New largesse in spending, linked to targets and performance indicators, rained onto other parts of the public sector, but older peoples' services were conspicuous by their absence."

Forum Response: Counsel and Care

Martin Greem, chief executive of Counsel and Care, told ePolitix.com: "I was disappointed to see that the chancellor did not direct sufficient new funds for long term care.

"We believe this was a missed opportunity, especially given the fact that the sums required are relatively small. We would have liked to have seen the chancellor give a higher priority for long term care."