Women on state pension handed £45,604 with ‘backdated’ rule | Personal Finance | Finance

Women claiming a state pension could get as much as £45,604 handed to them if they make a backdated claim for a little known pensions loophole which the government has promised to pay back for.

Thousands of women in the UK are thought to be eligible for being repaid money they should have had and could claim for tens of thousands of pounds as a result.

The exact circumstances are complex but it could be extremely lucrative.

Women who hit state pension age before April 2016, are on the zero basic state pension and have a husband who turned 65 before March 17, 2008, could be eligible for big payments.

If you’re in this group of people and you’re getting less than 60 percent of your husband’s state pension, you’re entitled to a boost of up to 60 percent of that figure.

Martin Lewis’ MSE website then explains how you can make this pay: “Under a little-known rule, women in this specific group are allowed to claim back underpaid pensions ALL the way back to when their husband started to draw his state pension (typically at age 65). This is because they’re deemed as having ‘deferred’ their pension rather than having been underpaid it, as they never had a basic state pension to begin with.”

The current rate of married women’s pension is £93.60 a week, and one year’s worth of this from 2008 to 2021 would give you £45,604.

You can either take this amount of backdated payments as a lump sum or choose to defer it and take much higher pension payments for the rest of your life.