SIR – OAPs must be reeling from the latest assault on them, this time by Tory work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith.

Bad enough that Labour ‘mugged’ many with small personal pensions by means-tested pension credits, but for the coalition to propose higher state pensions for some but not the rest beggars belief.

Although my state pension, including SERPS, might, after another four annual rises, be somewhere near what is being proposed, that of my wife will most certainly not – probably about £30 a week less!

Yet again, those who worked hard and saved, including women who paid voluntary national insurance after taking early retirement like my wife to achieve a full or almost full basic pension – because home responsibilities protection of NIC’s did not exist when they had a child – will be discriminated against big time.

This programme is beginning to look like the controversial plans for the NHS, i.e. ill-conceived and hastily presented to Parliament.

The Prime Minister already seems to have strong reservations about them, and is intervening. Maybe he ought to look at the new state pension plans as well, before they also undermine the credibility of his Government?

D S Boyes, Rodley Lane, Leeds