GORDON BROWN made a blatant pitch for pensioners -the voters who are likely to decide the Government's fate at the next election.

The over-65s are most likely to turn out in a General Election and the so-called "grey vote" is vital to Labour's chances of winning a third term.

With Michael Howard having launched a charm offensive on pensioners in recent weeks, the Chancellor had to do something to wrest the initative back from the Tories.

As well as the promises of a council tax refund and free bus travel, he announced that hospital charges would no longer be deducted from pensions, while there would again be a £200 winter fuel allowance, rising to £300 for the over-80s.

At the same time, the pension credit will be increased by 13 per cent over the next three years to ensure a minimum pensioner income of £119-a-week.

The basic state pension for the next year will be £82.05 for a single person and £131.21 for a couple, while the guaranteed minimum incomes will be £109.45 and £167.05 respectively.

Pensioners' rights campaigner Albert Burton, 80, who lives in Hurworth Place, near Darlington, said he was happy with the Budget.

He said: "Pensioners are better off now than they have ever been.

"On the day in 1997 Tony Blair unveiled New Labour in Trimdon before he won the election, I said to him, 'Will you make sure that poor people and pensioners are better off?' and he said yes. In my view he's stuck to that.

"I always said that before I died, I had two ambitions for pensioners -free bus travel and mobility allowance for over-65s. I e-mailed Mr Blair last week asking for free travel, so I'm going to keep on trying for mobility allowance.

"The Government introducing free bus travel is a real benefit for pensioners who cannot get around. I am lucky enough to be able to, and I have a car.

"But these days, public transport is not cheap, especially if you rely on it like a lot of people do who live out of town."

Mr Burton welcomed the £200 council tax refund, and said: "Anything that puts a few more pounds in the coffers must be a benefit.

"For people like pensioners who are on a fixed income, often the money they have will be just enough for them to live on.

"This is the best Government in my lifetime in terms of what they have done for children and pensioners.

"No one has given as much as this."

Help the Aged said that while the announcement of free local bus travel for all pensioners was a welcome surprise, Mr Brown's offerings were a "cash bribe" to elderly people that failed to meet their real needs.

Gordon Lishman, director-general of Age Concern England, said that the Chancellor had failed adequately to address the fact that two million pensioners were still in poverty.

He said a fairer system of taxation was needed in place of council tax so older people did not have to rely on one-off payments.

"The reality is that two million pensioners are still in poverty and these measures do not solve the root cause of the problem," he said.

"The basic state pension is disgracefully low, and small annual increases are not good enough."