Pension credits - backdating

adonis10

As I've recently been helping my parents sort out an inheritance, I've obviously done lots of googling and, as they both receive a state pension, it strikes me that they may have missed out on some pension credits.

Now, up until the last week their savings would have totalled approx 10k and they are 65 and 63 respectively. How far back can a backdated claim go? Now that they have savings that are substantially more than they have been prior to the inheritance, will this affect the claim? I'd assume not as if they were entitled to x credit from 6th april 2010 to, say, 1 March 2011, it should be based on their cirumstances during that period. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a loophole here!

Any advice would be much appreciated.