Plans to give housewives without children the right to the basic State Pension have been rejected by the Government, but women who give up work to raise children or look after elderly relatives will be entitled to the full state pension under new plans.

Ministers have thrown out plans for a ‘universal pension’, a central recommendation made by Lord Turner, head of the Government’s Pension Commission. He said the move would end the poverty faced by millions of women in old age.

His report in December said that the existing system based on National Insurance contributions should be scrapped and replaced by a universal scheme based on years of residence.