I was interested in the measures in the Budget to provide respite to the elderly and I think that for some pensioners living on very basic incomes it will be beneficial.

I say “think” because history tells us that with Labour budgets the devil is in the detail which trickles out over a period of time.

But let’s be positive, I know from my work with Age Concern that many elderly Winchester residents fall into this low income category and I am pleased for them.

However Winchester also has many elderly citizens who have pensions, savings and income from savings for whom the news is not so good.

Cash ISA limits have been raised by £1,500 to £5,100. Great you might say. With one of the better paying Isas on the market, this annual increase will result in extra interest of about £50 a year, hardly enough to improve the average pensioner's standard of living and certainly nowhere near enough to compensate for having taken away most of a person’s ability to earn an income from their savings.

But wait, there’s another £50 per year for Winter Fuel so that makes £100. It’s getting better all the time.

At the other end of the scale the Government has said it will raise the capital disregard in claims for Pension Credit, and pensioner-related Housing and Council Tax Benefit, from £6,000 to £10,000.

Apparently this will increase the income of the half a million pensioners affected by £200 per year on average. Not bad especially as we all know that the cost of living has dropped like a stone. Or has it?

Well the Retail Price Index fell to -0.4% in March so living costs must have dropped. Well that might be the case for someone with a massive variable rate mortgage but according to some analysts pensioners are facing an actual inflation rate of up to 12%!

This is because pensioners spend their money in a different way to the younger consumer. The plummeting mortgage rate fuels the falling headline inflation rate but has no impact on elderly people, most of whom have either never had a mortgage or have paid it off.

What it does is mask the fact that many older people's real rate of inflation remains far higher than the average because they spend a much greater proportion of their income on items which have in fact risen dramatically such as food, utilities and fuel.

You can probably attest to this from your own shopping experiences but in the past year food and non-alcoholic drinks rose by 10 per cent , the price of meat was up by 14 per cent, while vegetable costs rose 15 per cent and the price of tea and coffee has increased by 14 per cent.

So has the Budget helped the elderly pensioner? Well, some will be £50 a year better off, some £100 better off and others might be up to £300 better off. Add to this the £5 per week increase to the State Pension this month and many will say it has been a good budget for them.

We will have to wait and see if these increases are sufficient to compensate for the high increase in the cost of basic goods and the massive loss of interest to savers.