State pensioners over 80 handed higher £192.35 payments

Older state pensioners aged over 80 are being handed a higher cash boost to their state pension on top of the usual triple lock increase which will kick in from April.

Older state pensioners are those who hit state pension age before April 2016. They only qualify for the old ‘basic’ state pension which is paid at a lower rate. However, there is an uplift which is given out when they turn 80.

The basic state pension is set to be increased by approximately £374 a year, taking weekly payments to a new rate of £192.10 per week from April 2027. That’s because the triple lock – still confirmed to remain in place for 2027 – mandates that the benefit is increased by 3.9% next financial year.

The old state pension was closed off as of April 2016. It means that state pensioners who began to claim the DWP payments before that date were only entitled to the old state pension, while younger state pensioners first claiming after that date were given the ‘new state pension’, which distributes higher weekly payments, but no longer includes some elements like Additional Pension (AP) payments.

Someone on a full basic state pension will receive £192.10 per week, increasing from £184.90, and this increase has now been confirmed by the DWP in its new rates for next year.

However, those aged over 80 are given an additional amount per week. Though it is fairly negligible, the Treasury has never increased it nor scrapped it either.

Those aged 80 and over are given an extra 25p per week in their state pension payments, which takes their maximum weekly payment to £192.35, for those with a full National Insurance record and aged over 80, in receipt of the 25p addition.

Over the course of a year, that’s roughly £13 extra, and this has been kept in place for 2027-28 from April.

A Research Briefing issued by Parliament in 2013 explains: “Pensioners aged 80 and over receive an addition of 25 pence to their state pension. The age addition was introduced in 1971, in recognition of the special claims of very elderly people who on the whole need help rather more than others.

“It has never been uprated, with successive Governments either arguing that greater priority should be given to protecting the level of the basic benefits, or choosing to target additional resources at older pensioners by other means, for example, through means-tested benefits or lump sum payments, such as the Winter Fuel Payment.”

Older state pensioners aged over 80 are also eligible for an increased winter fuel payment, paid out at £300 instead of £200.