Means Testing
Means testing is the process the government uses to decide the level of benefits someone receives.
Most famously applied to pensions, means testing assesses how much money a pensioner has available to them, and then distributes state benefits accordingly.
However, means testing has proved controversial, as some pension providers and politicians have argued that by giving more money to people who have not saved for their pensions themselves, means testing could discourage people from saving for their retirement.
There have also been suggestions that it could result in a mis-selling scandal if it emerged that people advised to save would have been better off if they had not.