It’s a residual payment linked only to the old state pension. It was introduced in 1971 when the pension was only £6 a week.
The addition has never been increased. It was specifically excluded from the statutory index linking provisions of the Social Security Act 1975 (now replaced by section 150 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992).
researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00321/SN00321.pdf
It won’t be paid to anyone in receipt of the single tier pension, so any man born on or after April 6 1951, and women born on or after April 6 1953 who will turn 80 in six or eight years time respectively.
Moneybox Paul Lewis writing in the Radio Times February 2024:
It costs around £47 million a year to give it to the 3.6 million state pensioners over 80, and I can see the headlines now if the Government tried to take it away! However, I don’t imagine they’ll be raising it to [the current value of] £6.50 either (at a cost of over £1 billion a year). Not least because it’s a problem that will eventually go away: the 25p addition will not be paid with the new state pension when the first people who get that reach 80.
