State pensioners urged to make five moves and boost payments by £60,816

State pensioners can boost their payments by a staggering £60k - all thanks to five moves. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) administers the state pension and could boost payments for pensioners, who could be tens of thousands better off.

The basic state pension provides £169.50 to those who retired before 2016, applicable to men born before April 6, 1951, and women born after April 6, 1953. These individuals would have reached retirement age before April 2016 and were therefore placed on the old basic state pension system, paying £8,814 annually.

The new state pension system pays significantly more - £221.20 per week or £11,502 per year. Anyone born after these dates will automatically claim the more lucrative new state pension, but there's something you can do to save cash.

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Increase qualifying years - £50,000

A guide from the Money Saving Expert team said the "potentially unbeatable" income boost is providing some people with increases of more than £50,000 to their income. A person typically needs 35 years of NI contributions to get the full new state pension, which is currently £221.20 a week. You will need at least 10 years of contributions to get any state pension when you start to claim.

This means one year of contributions is worth one 35th of the full amount, or £6.32 a week. So even if you top up just one full year's worth of NI contributions, this could increase your payments by £328.64 a year, or by £6,572.80 in total if you live for 20 years after claiming.

To first find out if you have any gaps in your NI record, you can use this tool on the Government website to check your record. This will show you for each year since you turned 16 if you have a 'full year' of contributions or a 'year is not full' if you have a gap.

Claim NI credits for looking after children - £6.000

Grandparents who look after their grandchildren while parents are working can claim a financial reward for doing so which could bump up the amount they get in State Pension. If you're one of those taking care of little ones you could claim "specified adult childcare credits", which count as a National Insurance (NI) credit for those who don't otherwise work, such as retired grandparents.

The full State Pension is worth £221.20 a week this tax year. Each qualifying year on your NI record after April 2016 could add up to an extra £6.32 a week through your State Pension. So, even if you're only entitled to a small number of credits, they could significantly increase your income over time.

And, wealth management company Quilter has said these credits could make some people more than £6,000 better off over the course of a typical retirement, which is around 20 years.

Defer your state pension - £916

If you choose to defer your state pension by a year, the total you're paid when you do collect it will increase. Currently, for every nine weeks you delay taking your state pension, the payout rises by 1 per cent. That makes for a 5.8 per cent boost per year, or £666.

These numbers apply to those on the New State Pension, which is currently £221.50 per week but will rise each year in line with the Triple Lock. Those on the old state pension - born before 1949 - could get an extra 10.4 percent added to their £169.50 state pension per week, making for a total of £916 extra per year roughly.

Check you have all the credits you're entitled to

Which? warns possible errors including the large number of parents who have been underpaid as their 'Home Responsibilities Protection' (HRP) was not included on their records. Which? said that these and other errors have seen £594million paid to 99,558 individuals who were received less than they were due because of system errors.

Apply for Pension Credit - £3,900

The government’s Pension Credit awareness drive will help identify households not claiming the benefit, and encourage pensioners to apply by 21 December, the last date for making a backdated claim for Pension Credit, in order to receive the Winter Fuel Payment.

Around 1.3 million households in England and Wales will continue to receive Winter Fuel Payments due to some other pensioner households being eligible and expected extra Pension Credit take up due to this reform.