Over half of the UK's OAP population could be dependent on Gordon Brown's means-tested pension credit the Institute of Fiscal Studies has warned.

By 2025 nearly three quarters of pensioners could be drawn into a new form of welfare dependency which "will erode the desire to save", predicts the influential think tank.

Forum Response: Counsel and Care

Martin Green, chief executive of Counsel and Care, told ePolitix.com: "I agree with the conclusions of the Institute of Fiscal Studies. The fact that the government is failing to address the long term needs of pensioners will lead to a greater dependency on a means tested system in the future."

Forum Response: National Association of Pension Funds

A spokesman for the NAPF told ePolitix.com: ""We very much support the principal of reward for saving. Although the Pension Credit is intended to encourage people to save, it is a wide-ranging and complex benefit which is very difficult for savers to interpret.

"It is extremely difficult for an individual to work out whether or not they will qualify for the credit when they reach retirement. This means that the Pension Credit may not be very effective in encouraging people to save".

Forum Response: Help the Aged

A spokesman for Help the Aged told ePolitix.com: "The Pension Credit is being discredited on more and more fronts, as experts grapple with its complexity and scale.

"Obliging more than half of the pensioner population to apply for a means-tested benefit, with the attendant bureaucracy and cost, will merely lead to a large number of older people failing to claim what is rightfully theirs, a phenomenon we are already witnessing with the Minimum Income Guarantee.

"With the pensions and savings sector in crisis, any disincentive to save adequately for retirement has the potential to create serious problems in later years. The Pension Credit may well prove to be such a disincentive.

"If people of working age today are to plan responsibly for retirement and make adequate savings they need to know the ground rules of what state help they will receive when they retire. It is difficult to be sure the government knows where the Pension Credit is going and what it means for the state benefit and pension system in 10 or 20 years time.

"The State Second Pension, which was only unveiled in the last few years, is already looking irrelevant when compared to the Pension Credit. It is therefore impossible for people working and saving today to know what help they can and cannot expect. Only with proper information can people be expected to plan effectively and confidently."

Forum Response: Age Concern

A spokeswoman for Age Concern told ePolitix.com: "The Pension Credit is well-intentioned and will for the first time reward savings. However, it will add yet another layer of complexity to the already complicated benefits system and will result in more than a half of pensioners being on means-tested benefits.

"Age Concern believes that the basic state pension must provide the foundation to build up an adequate income in retirement."