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Hundreds of thousands of pensioners have enjoyed an extra boost to their pension - although it's not much.

The Government was asked in Parliament about the 25p-a-week additional amount that goes out to some people on the basic state pension once they reach the age of 80.

This means anyone born in 1944 or earlier and anyone who turned 80 this year and who is on the basic state pension, should get the extra amount.

The extra amount for those who have reached their eighth decade was introduced in 1971, when the state pension was just £6 a week, so an extra 25p represented a 24% boost to your payments. Nowadays even if you tot up the annual total, an extra £13 a year is not so impressive.

Ministers have never uprated the extra amount, similar to the Christmas Bonus of £10 that goes out to many claimants around the festive period, which has likewise never increased since it was brought in 1971.

Labour MP Jonathan Davies asked what the total administrative cost is of implementing the 25p addditional amount, and whether this cost is more than the extra amount paid out to claimants.

Pensions minister Torsten Bell reassures that the 25p age addition is "simple to administer". He explained: "Payments are made automatically as part of the person's ongoing entitlement. The administration costs are therefore negligible."

Nonetheless, the minister did admit there are some costs incurred in the DWP's efforts to tell people reaching their 80th birthday of the small pay boost.

Mr Bell said: "In 2024, 474,239 letters were issued to inform people that they were now entitled to the age addition, costing £278,030 in printing and postage.

"In 2024/2025, the annual cost of the 25p age addition to the state pension for those eligible 80+ is estimated to be £50.8million. Administrative costs therefore do not exceed the total amount paid."

A research briefing issued by Parliament in 2013 about the extra 25p explained the reasoning for the policy: "Pensioners aged 80 and over receive an addition of 25 pence to their .

"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 ."

State pensioners received a 4.1% increase to their payments from April thanks to the triple lock. This lifted the full basic state pension from £169.50 a week to £176.45 a week.

You typically need 30 years of National Insurance contributions to get the full basic state pension. The full new state pension now pays £230.25 a week, having increased from £221.20 a week from April.

A person can check how much state pension they are on track to receive using the state pension forecast on the Government website.