The Government’s chief pensions adviser has told Gordon Brown that he will have to drastically reduce the number of pensioners who rely on means-tested payments.

Lord Turner said the Chancellor would only be able to reform one of the “meanest” state pension systems in the developed world if he abandoned his commitment to means-testing and restored the link with earnings. He also took a swipe at Mr Brown’s £5 billion-a-year tax raid on pension funds, arguing that it was something he should not have done.