People born in certain years could be owed thousands of pounds in missing state pension payments.

State pensions are complex, with various different reasons people can be eligible for different amounts of payouts in different scenarios.

And one little known quirk of the state pension system is the over-80s pension.

That means anyone born in 1944 or earlier could be owed £101.55 a week in state pensions handouts, or £5,280.60 per year.

And anyone can qualify for the money without needing to have made National Insurance contributions, as long as you have lived in the UK for at least 10 of the past 20 years and usually reside in the UK (or Gibraltar or the Isle of Man).

And if you’re the heir or widow of someone who missed out, you should be able to make a claim on their behalf.

Martin Lewis’ MSE website says that as many as 37,000 people could be owed money due to this issue.

It said: “It's estimated that 37,000 people could fall into this category. Usually the state pension you get depends on your national insurance contributions. But if you're aged 80 or over and get less than £85 a week in state pension, you may be eligible for the little-known 'category D' non-contributory state pension. This type of pension is designed to ensure that people over 80 receive a certain minimum pension, even if you haven't made enough national insurance contributions.”

And some people simply weren’t getting a state pension at all. Those people, who perhaps didn’t have enough National Insurance record to get access to the pension, are able to make a claim for the over-80s pension.

To claim, you need to contact the DWP’s Pensions Service on 0800 7310 469.