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Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing growing pressure to impose means-testing on the State Pension amid stark new forecasts showing the bill could soar to £181.8 billion by 2030.

The sum, released by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), reveals that nearly half of all welfare spending will be swallowed up by payments to pensioners by 2029/30 - up from £150.7 billion this year.

It has sparked calls from experts at the Intergenerational Foundation for a radical rethink of how the pension system works, including scrapping the triple lock and targeting payments to those most in need.

In a warning to the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the think tank advised: "Reform the state pension by removing the triple lock and introducing modest means-testing."

Currently, anyone aged 66 or over is entitled to receive the state pension - worth up to £11,973 a year - regardless of income or wealth, so long as they have made the required National Insurance contributions.

But critics say this universal approach is becoming unsustainable, with Britain's ageing population placing an ever-greater strain on the welfare budget.

Overall, total welfare spending is forecast to hit £373.4 billion by the end of the decade - an increase of nearly a fifth, or £60.4 billion, on current levels.

Of that, just under 49% will go towards age-related benefits including the State Pension, housing support, Pension Credit and winter fuel payments.

The Intergenerational Foundation warns this could fuel a growing divide between age groups - and is urging Labour to act before the system becomes 'structurally unfair'.

The group's analysis shows that real per-person spending on pensioners surged by 55 per cent between 2004/05 and 2023/24 - while equivalent spending on children rose by just 20 per cent over the same period.

Its latest report argues: "Rising costs, combined with long-standing disparities in how different age groups are treated by the welfare system, demand urgent reform."

Under the proposed reforms, better-off retirees would receive a reduced State Pension - or none at all - in what would mark one of the biggest shifts in British pension policy in decades.

The triple lock system, which guarantees the State Pension rises each year in line with inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent (whichever is highest), has already come under fire for inflating costs.

According to the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), it now adds £11 billion annually to government spending compared with linking increases to inflation or earnings alone.

That cost is expected to rise further as inflation and wages grow - making the policy a lightning rod in the wider debate over how to fund retirement fairly.

Despite the eye-watering headline figures, overall welfare spending as a share of the economy is forecast to dip slightly - from 11.1 per cent of GDP to 10.8 per cent - thanks to expected economic growth.

But the sheer scale of pension-related spending is fuelling fears of a looming generational crunch, with younger taxpayers footing an increasingly large bill to fund benefits for those in later life.

Any move to means-test the State Pension would be politically explosive. It would mark the end of a universal benefit seen for decades as a bedrock of the postwar welfare state.

So far, Labour has stopped short of committing to such reforms, with no confirmation from the Treasury on whether it will retain or ditch the triple lock.