Pensioners will find themselves up to £200 a year worse off in reduced purchasing power,

Pensioners will find themselves up to £200 a year worse off in reduced purchasing power, as a result of the latest Government "stealth tax", which will see some vital parts of their pension frozen this year.

In his pre-Budget speech last December, Alistair Darling said that the state pension would rise by 2.5pc from April. This, he appeared to suggest, was a sign of the Chancellor's largesse, given September's inflation figures – on which the following year's state pension is always based – showed prices were falling.