Dr Ros Altman, who apparently spent six years advising the Treasury and Number 10, says that 80 per cent of workers face a retirement in poverty and that "if there is one person in Government who is responsible for this pensions scandal, it has to be the Chancellor".

She is critical particularly of Gordon Brown's decision to scrap tax relief on dividends received by pension funds which is generally (though now probably inaccurately) said to cost the funds £5 billion a year. But - just as important - this withdrawal of tax relief has deterred many companies from offering company pension schemes any more.

Here is the most remarkable figure from the Daily Mail article today on the subject: apparently only 39 per cent of the working age population now have a company or personal pension. When Labour came to power in 1997, the figure was close to 60 per cent.

Unless these figures are misleading in some way, this is dramatic evidence of the failure of Gordon Brown. He has impoverished the retirement years of millions of the people. He just did not grasp the unintended consequences of his actions. It would tempting to call him a blundering fool. But he is something stranger than that: a blundering clever-clever.

According to the Mail (sadly the story does not seem to be online) Dr Altmann's comments will be made in an ITV1 documentary "Where's my pension gone?" to be shown on Thursday at 9pm.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Pensions

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