Married stamp boost

RECENTLY retired women are being urged to contact the Pension Service if they are entitled to a little-known boost to their state pension.

Up to 10,000 women who paid the ‘married woman’s stamp’ National Insurance rate could still collect a state pension of up to £129.20 a week.

Insurer Royal London said that from 1948, married women could pay reduced contributions as it was expected they would depend on their husbands in retirement. The ‘stamp’ ended in 1977 but women on the rate could stay on it. The new state pension, rolled out in 2016, has a concession for women who paid the reduced rate in the past 35 years.

Divorced or widowed women who paid the stamp get up to £129.20 a week. Those still married can claim £77.45 a week.