HUNDREDS of thousands will get an extra state pension boost this month thanks to a decades-old rule.

People who receive the basic state pension could see their payments rise by 20% from April 10.

It comes as millions of pensioners will see their payments rise by inflation on April 10.

Under the triple lock, all state pension payments have to rise by whatever is highest – inflation, wages or 2.5%.

As inflation measures at 10.1% in September, the government committed to the triple lock and confirmed that pension payments would increase at this rate into the 2023/24 financial year.

It means that from April 10, those on the new state pension will see their weekly rates rise to £203.85 – up from £185.5.

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This means that across the next financial year, retirees on this type of pension can expect to be paid £10,629 in total – up from £9,673 in the 2022/23 financial year.

But hundreds of thousands of people who receive the basic state pension – men born before April 6, 1951, or women born before April 6, 1953 – could see their total award rise by more than 10.1%.

Basic state pension payments will rise on April 10 to £156.20 a week – up from £141.85 but additional pension payments will also rise with inflation meaning that some pensioners will get a 20% boost overall.

Under the previous state pension rules, workers were able to build up an additional weekly payment through the state earnings-related pension scheme (SERPS).

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This effectively worked as a top-up to the former basic state pension.

The Government has allowed many workers in their 40s, 50s and early-60s to keep their existing entitlement and these payments will also rise in line with inflation at 10.1%.

The maximum weekly amount that anyone can receive under their additional pension (including SEPRS) will rise to £204.68 on April 10 – up from £185.90 a week.

Payment boosts to the basic state pension and SERPS could give certain pensioners a pay rise of up to 20%, according to consultancy LCP.

Steve Webb, former pensions minister and now partner at LCP said: "It would affect people who were in a ‘contracted out’ workplace pension for a long period of time after 1978 when SERPS started."

Indeed, hundreds of thousands of workers were automatically contracted out of the SERPS scheme and instead paid into a defined benefit scheme called a guaranteed minimum pension (GMP).

You might have a GMP if you were a member of a defined benefit pension scheme between 1978 and 1997.

As these workers were contracted out of the SERPS they wouldn't receive additional state pension payments on retirement.

To ensure that these defined benefit members did not lose out as a result, the government guaranteed them a minimum pension broadly equivalent to the amount they would have received if still in SERPS.

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But many received more and on April 10 could be in line for a bumper pension payment boost above 10.1% overall.

You can find out if you had were part of a GMP by looking at old payslips or speaking to previous employers.

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