Chancellor George Osborne said he would extend the application deadline until mid-May, due to the immense popularity of the bonds. Over 600,000 over-65s have bought them since their launch last month.

Speaking to Andrew Marr on the BBC last Sunday, Osborne said encouraging savers was fundamental to the UK’s economic recovery; he hailed the 65+ bonds as “the most successful savings product this country has ever seen”.

Reaction to the announcement has been largely negative. Andy James, head of retirement planning at Towry, said that the bonds “represent an incredibly expensive way of borrowing money, which the government could get cheaper from the markets”, and criticised the lack of government effort to “incentivise younger people to take saving for their own retirements more seriously.”

Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute for Economic Affairs, said that the scheme’s extension was little more than an electoral “sweetener” for “wealthy pensioners”.

“This announcement well and truly proves that we are not all in it together,” Littlewood continued. “Pensioner bonds have never been anything other than a gimmick that will benefit pensioners at the expense of the taxpayer, and it beggars belief that the government is prolonging such a foolish policy.”