Those who are eligible can inject a cash boost into their State Pension.
The over 80 pension can give pensioners £105.70 a week in the 2025 to 2026 tax year (Image: Getty)
Older state pensioners can get up to £105.70 extra per week from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) with a single claim. The DWP pays an ‘over 80 pension’ for retirees aged 80 and over who get either a basic State Pension of £105.70 per week, or no basic State Pension. To get the basic State Pension you must have been born before April 6, 1951, if you’re a man, or before April 6, 1953, if you’re a woman. Thanks to an uprating of 4.1% in April this year, the basic State Pension is currently worth £176.45 per week if you get the full amount, which works out to a maximum of £9,145.40 per year.
To get the full rate, men born between 1945 and 1951 usually need 30 qualifying years of National Insurance (NI), or 44 qualifying years if you were born between 1945 and 1951. Women, by comparison, usually need 30 qualifying years if you were born between 1950 and 1953, or 39 qualifying years if you were born before 1950.
So if your basic State Pension is less than £176.45 per week it means you don’t have the full number of qualifying NI years. But if you’re 80 or over and have weekly payments below £105.70 then you can boost your earnings by claiming the over 80 pension, as this can give you up to £105.70 per week in the 2025 to 2026 tax year, according to the DWP.
If you’re eligible, the amount you’ll get depends on how much basic State Pension you get (if any), but if it’s less than £105.70 per week you could get the difference paid up to this amount.
The DWP says an 80-year-old who gets £43 per week basic State Pension, for example, would get an extra £62.70 to top up their weekly amount to £105.70. But if you had no basic State Pension at all then you’d get the full amount of £107.70 per week from the DWP. Over a full year, the over 80 pension can give claimants a maximum of £5,496.40 in their pension pot.
This pension is only available to people aged 80 or over and you can’t 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.”
Unlike the basic and new State Pension schemes, your eligibility for the over 80 pension isn’t based on National Insurance contributions. Claimants should also note that the over-80 pension counts as taxable income, so if you’re claiming any other benefits, these could be affected.
You can apply for the scheme by requesting a claim form from your local Jobcentre Plus, or by calling the Pension Service on 0800 731 7898. The earliest you can submit a claim is up to three months before your 80th birthday, or any time after.
