HELP for women and older people will be at the heart of the Queen's Speech tomorrow as the UK Government denied proposed changes to pensions for overseas claimants were in response to the political threat from UKIP.

Downing Street stressed how the changes to its legislative programme would "revolutionise the way we support older people, help all of us plan for the future and provide security and dignity for later on in life".

The Pensions Bill will set out proposals to create a single-tier, flat-rate state pension of around £144 a week based on 35 years of National Insurance contributions.

The Government believes it will provide certainty to people and help them plan and save for their retirement. It stresses how it will particularly benefit women, low-earners and the self-employed, who under existing rules find it difficult to earn a full state pension.

Steve Webb, the Pensions Minister, defended a proposed curb in the shake-up that will stop spouses, who have not paid into the system, receiving a state pension on the basis of their husband's contributions.

Mr Webb said it was not fair to taxpayers that a growing number of people overseas could claim UK pensions even though they had "never put a penny" into the system or even been here.

He rejected suggestions the impact on overseas spouses had been highlighted in a bid to counter the appeal of the anti-EU UK Independence Party, after its strong showing in last week's English council elections.

He said: "The fact we pay more than 200,000 pensions outside the country, to many people who may not even have visited the country, would strike most as not fair. And we are going to change it."

The present cost to the taxpayer of those payouts, worth up to £3500 a year, is put at around £410 million a year.

He said: "We're not saying we care who you marry, that's your choice. What we are saying is: Don't expect in the future that when you marry somebody they acquire rights in theBritish system even if they haven't put in."

However, Norman Cudmore, who lives in The Philippines after serving in the RAF for 22 years and working overseas for another 16, said he feared his Filipina wife could be left "destitute and starving to death" when he died.

He said: "I have contributed to the UK pension scheme for all those years and will qualify for a state pension. I did this so my wife would have security when I pass away.

Existing pensioners will be unaffected by the changes but new claims at home and abroad will be barred from 2016.

Elsewhere in the Queen's Speech, there will be support for people who look after those with conditions like dementia and a cap on social care costs for the elderly in England; in Scotland it is free.

Help for carers will mean for the first time they will be given the same right to support as the person they look after. The new legislation comes at a tipping point for carers as numbers are expected to grow with the ageing population.

Figures from the Alzheimer's Society show there are currently 565,000 people in the UK caring for older people with dementia. However, this number is expected to grow to around 720,000 by 2021 – a rise of 25%.

The new legislation will aim to improve people's access to information and help them to find out about what support is available to them.

Both these bills are expected to prove beneficial to women, said Downing Street, as they are more likely to be disadvantaged by the pension system by having taken time out to care for their family and who make up around 60% of carers.

Liz Kendall, for Labour, said it supported the principle of capping care costs and giving family carers the right to have their own needs assessed but the Coalition measures did "not go anywhere near far enough in tackling the desperate and growing crisis in care".