Broadstone, formerly BDO Investment Investment, has attacked critics of George Osborne's so-called "granny tax" – the change to personal allowances for over-65s which will result in some pensioners paying more income tax.

Following yesterday's Budget announcement that personal allowances for over 65-year-olds would be frozen, specialists at Broadstone Pensions & Investments Ltd have said that complaints about the move are unjustified.

Commenting on the Chancellor's decision, John Broome Saunders, actuarial director at Broadstone Broadstone Pensions & Investments Ltd , said "Frankly pensioners should stop whinging about this. Pensioners have enjoyed larger personal allowances for many years, and all the Chancellor has done is to extend these to everybody else.

"There was something perniciously ageist about a tax system that meant that a 70-year-old paid less income tax than a 50-year-old with identical income, and this decision goes some way to correct this."

Mr Broome Saunders believes that tax-benefit redistribution in favour of working people is economically fair and overdue.

He continued: "Most current pensioners are the beneficiaries of final salary pension schemes that are providing them with pensions worth far more than originally anticipated, thanks to increasing life expectancy and lower interest rates.

"And they still benefit enormously from the fact that they are entirely exempt from National Insurance. If Mr Osborne gets his way and merges National Insurance with regular income tax, they could be in for a much bigger shock."