The big story from the ‘Ford Focus budget’ was the personal allowance increased for taxpayers facing a squeeze on their living costs and a cut in fuel duty. The Institute for Fiscal Studies concluded that this budget gave with one hand but took away with ‘lots and lots of other hands’. But working through the budget details there was nothing to warm pensioners whose fixed incomes are being squeezed by inflation and poor returns on savings.

Today, I have asked the House of Commons Library to do an assessment of the impact of the budget on pensioners, but here’s what I have worked out so far.

First, the one big piece of news for pensioners in the budget was something the chancellor didn’t mention – the Winter Fuel Allowance. The impact of fuel prices is felt at the petrol pump and in our energy bills. For pensioners, it is energy bills – for gas and electricity – where the biggest worry is – especially as pensioners are less likely to be car owners compared with people of working age.

It was by sleight of hand that pensioners will lose up to £100 this winter, as the chancellor failed to maintain the winter fuel allowance at the level of the last two winters. The payment went up in 2009 and 2010 in recognition of high energy bills but the chancellor’s failure to mention the payment means it will fall to £200 this year for the over 60s and £300 for those over 80, instead of £250 and £400 in the last two years.

Second, one of the centrepieces of the budget, the increased income tax threshold, puts around £45 into the pockets of working-age taxpayers. But it makes no difference for pensioners, whose tax threshold was held steady at £9,490 (£9,640 for over 75s).

Meanwhile, moves to combine income tax and national insurance will be viewed sceptically by pensioners, and must be implemented in a way that protects the incomes of pensioners who do not pay national insurance.

Third, while Osborne announced with a flourish that he would introduce a flat rate £140 pension, that means nothing to today’s pensioners, who will not gain from such changes. A promise of ‘jam tomorrow’ does nothing to help pensioners today.

What’s more, a green paper on a simpler state pension has been promised over and over again by the government. I’m looking forward to getting to read it. Because, while the chancellor said he expected it to be worth around £140, with the CPI running at 4.4 per cent and the pension credit worth £137.35, the guaranteed minimum income would exceed that level by the time it is introduced. If the flat rate pension is cost neutral, we must ensure it’s not the poorest pensioners who are worse off. We need the detail to be able to judge the impact.

Fourth, women turning 57 this month were hoping that the chancellor would see sense and reverse the decision to make them wait two years extra for their State Pension. But there was no such commitment, despite strong criticism from Age UK and Saga, and as I have written about previously on Progress.

The chancellor announced his intention to spread the cost of increased longevity more fairly between generations with future increases in the state pension age. But he did not recognise the unfairness in the pensions bill that means 500,000 women will have to wait for more than a year extra to receive their pension with very little time to plan.

I will look carefully at proposals for fairer increases in the future state pension age to reflect our ageing society, but the retirement age is not just about how long we are living, but how healthy we are as well.

Labour lifted 1.1 million pensioners out of poverty between 1997 and 2010. But pensioners are now facing a triple whammy of increasing VAT, increasing energy prices and decreasing returns of savings. The winter fuel allowance makes the choice between eating properly and heating their homes much easier for many pensioners. With oil prices soaring, I do not think it is fair to reduce pensioner incomes when they need a bit of extra support. Yesterday’s budget was a missed opportunity for the chancellor to help pensioners feeling the squeeze.