Flat-rate state pension branded a con trick by OAP group Critics say the new plans would mean people would have to make national insurance contributions for 35 years rather than 30. The government will on Monday unveil a new flat-rate state pension worth £144 a week with a pledge to end the "shameful situation" in which women who take time out to care for their children suffer in retirement. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, will declare that the new "single tier" pension will ensure women receive a full state pension in their own right. But the government announcement, due to be unveiled in a white paper, was immediately condemned by the National Pensioners Convention as a "con trick" for future generations. The convention directly challenged Duncan Smith's claim, saying that women will suffer because pensioners will have to make national insurance contributions for 35 years, rather than the current 30, to benefit from the new pension. Dot Gibson, the convention's general secretary, said: "What the government is trying to sell is a plan for people to pay in for 35 years, get £144 a week and have to wait at least until 68 before they can collect it. No one should be taken in by what is little more than a con trick. Gibson hit out at the government as Duncan Smith and Steve Webb, the pensions minister, prepared to unveil a simplification of the state pension that will be introduced for new pensioners from 2017. They insist that the new rate, set above the basic £142.70 level of the means test and well above the current basic state pension of £107 a week, will be a vast improvement. Pensioners will have to make national insurance contributions for 35 years to qualify for the full amount - more than 40% of new pensioners are expected to achieve this by the 2040s. There is a minimum 10-year qualifying period. The government estimates that 750,000 women who reach pension age in the decade after the new system is introduced will receive an extra £9 a week. It says that 2.8 million receive a state pension of under £80 a week, compared with 474,000 men. Duncan Smith said: "This reform is good news for women who for too long have been effectively punished by the current system. The single tier will mean that more women can get a full state pension in their own right, and stop this shameful situation where they are let down by the system when it comes to retirement because they have taken time out to care for their family. Gibson said: "The white paper offers nothing to existing pensioners and leaves many of them to struggle on lower pensions and a complicated means-testing system. The worst affected will be around 5 million older women who don't have a pension anywhere near £144 a week and would clearly benefit if they were included in the new arrangements, but look like they are going to miss out. This will only add insult to injury to millions who have already made a contribution to our society but are still living in poverty.