The forthcoming pension credit is on track for October, the government announced on Monday.

A major advertising campaign on TV and in the press will run from September to make pensioners, their families and friends aware of this new entitlement.

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Richard Wilson, incomes policy officer for Help the Aged, said: "While we welcome the innovations that the minister has outlined, the Department of Work and Pensions seems to now be in the business of managing expectations.

"They have set a very low target of 75 per cent of eligible people to receive the credit within three years. This smacks of admitting defeat before the process has even started, and seems likely, as with the Minimum Income Guarantee, to exclude many of the most vulnerable and poorest sections of the older population.

"Part of the problem is the complexity of the new credit - it is impossible adequately to explain it in a 30-second advertisement. Our fear is that the helpline will be swamped by people who are not eligible.

"Older people cannot afford to be caught in the same kind of muddle that we have witnessed in, for instance, the introduction of the Working Tax Credit by the Inland Revenue.

"Eligible people, that is, half of the pensioner population, have the right to expect a good, efficient service when applying, and a much higher proportion of those eligible than is currently forecast should be getting what they are due as soon as possible after introduction."

Forum Response: Counsel and Care

Martin Green, chief executive of Counsel and Care, told ePolitix.com: "I welcome the new pension credit but I hope that the administration problems are sorted out - particularly for those who are on attendance allowance and want to claim the pensions credit."