TODAY I can announce that we will pay to every pensioner household - 65 and over - paying council tax, a council tax refund of £200," trumpeted Gordon Brown in his Budget Speech.

Not true! The Department for Work and pensions admitted last week that about 500,000 households will not receive the promised £200 because they could claim a means-tested benefit called Council Tax Benefit, which would pay this tax for them. So, senior citizens of Worcester, if you are eligible for CTB but refuse to complete the demeaning 24 page form, you will not get the £200 rebate, which is, of course, for one year only.

Can we believe anything Gordon Brown says? Remember, this is the man who takes £5bn a year from retirement funds but refuses to accept that this has had any impact on the pension crisis.

Labour is now in a panic about pensions because savings are insufficient to fund old age. If they remain in office after the election it is almost certain that compulsory pension contributions (another stealth tax) will be introduced.

People will then stop any voluntary saving so there would actually be a reduction in net savings.

Before Gordon Brown abolished pension funds' ability to roll-up tax-free, Britain's pension savings exceeded those of the rest of Europe combined. Now we have deficits and wind-ups all round.

Far from being the pensioners' friends, the Labour Government and the Chancellor are the reverse and I haven't even mentioned the derisory State Pension and the continuing scandal of long term care!

JEAN JESSOP, Worcester.