Pensions minister Ian McCartney has emphasised the importance placed by government on policies to help women in their retirement.

Speaking to members of USDAW at their annual conference in Blackpool, he said: "We believe it is right to ensure that the less well off are given a decent income in retirement. We don't want pensioners to live in poverty just because they couldn't afford to pay for, or didn't have access to, a second pension."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Hilary Carter, spokeswoman for Help the Aged, told ePolitix.com "The government has a fragmented policy towards solving pensioner poverty which puts the burden of claiming benefits onto individuals, while the basic state pension is left to wither away. Help the Aged believes the government policy of drawing over half of all pensioners into means tested benefits through the pension credit to be dangerously flawed.

"Instead, the charity is urging the government to ensure that all older people have access to a decent state pension by scrapping the bureaucracy of the pension credit and instead increasing the basic state pension."

Forum response: Counsel and Care

A spokesperson for Counsel and Care told ePolitix.com: "We welcome the government's attempts to end pensioner poverty, but feel that these initiatives do not go far enough. There are a sizeable number of older people who are socially excluded by virtue of poverty and despite the initiatives that the minister has announced, pensioners are still not sharing in the increased prosperity of the nation and the gap between average earnings and pensions is still too wide.

"There is also a looming crisis for future generations, who will not have any guarantees that the pensions they are currently contributing to will provide them with adequate retirement incomes. The government must do more to provide better incomes for today's older people and some certainty for the pensioners of the future."