State pensioners 80 years old and over can receive a cash injection each week from the Department for Work and Pensions with just one claim – though the rate depends on a few factors
State pensioners aged 80 and over can receive up to an additional £105.70 per week from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) with a single claim.
The DWP offers an ‘over 80 pension’ for retirees who either receive a basic State Pension of £105.70 per week or no basic State Pension at all. To be eligible for the basic State Pension, men must have been born before April 6, 1951 and women before April 6, 1953.
Following a 4.1% increase in April this year, the full basic State Pension is now worth £176.45 per week, equating to a maximum of £9,145.40 annually. To qualify for the full rate, men born between 1945 and 1951 typically need 30 qualifying years of National Insurance (NI), or 44 qualifying years if they were born between 1945 and 1951.
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Women, on the other hand, generally require 30 qualifying years if they were born between 1950 and 1953, or 39 qualifying years if they were born prior to 1950.
If your basic State Pension is less than £176.45 per week, it indicates that you do not have the full number of qualifying NI years. However, if you’re 80 or over and your weekly payments are below £105.70, you can enhance your income by claiming the over 80 pension, which could provide you with up to £105.70 per week in the 2025 to 2026 tax year, as stated by the DWP.
The amount you’ll receive if you’re eligible depends on how much basic State Pension you get (if any), but if it’s less than £105.70 per week, you could have the difference paid up to this amount.
The DWP says an 80-year-old who receives £43 per week basic State Pension, for example, would receive an additional £62.70 to boost their weekly amount to £105.70. However, if you had no basic State Pension whatsoever then you’d receive the full amount of £107.70 per week from the DWP.
Across a full year, the over-80 pension can provide claimants with a maximum of £5,496.40 in their pension pot, reports the Express. This pension is exclusively available to people aged 80 or over and you cannot claim it if you reached State Pension age – which is currently 66 years old for both men and women – on or after April 6, 2016.
You must have been a UK resident for at least 10 years out of a 20 year period, which must include the day before you turned 80 or any day after, or you were ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK, the Isle of Man or Gibraltar on your 80th birthday, or the date you submitted your claim for the over 80 pension. The earliest you can claim is three months before your 80th birthday.
The DWP said: “The over 80 pension is a State Pension for people aged 80 or over. To be eligible you must get either a basic State Pension of less than £105.70 a week, or no basic State Pension at all.
“It can give you £105.70 a week in the 2025 to 2026 tax year. What you get depends on how much basic State Pension you get, if any. If you do not get the basic State Pension or you get less than £105.70 a week, you could get the difference paid up to this amount. You cannot get the over 80 pension if you reached State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016.”
In contrast to the basic and new State Pension schemes, your eligibility to the over-80 pension doesn’t depend on National Insurance contributions. Claimants should also be aware that the over-80 pension is considered taxable income, meaning if you’re receiving any other benefits, these might be impacted.
You can apply for the scheme by requesting a claim form from your nearest Jobcentre Plus, or by ringing the Pension Service on 0800 731 7898. The earliest you can lodge a claim is up to three months before your 80th birthday, or at any point afterwards.