The State Pension is a regular payment from the UK government to people who have reached State Pension age and built up enough National Insurance contributions during their working life. The full new State Pension is £230.25 a week for the 2025–26 tax year, rising by 4.8% from April 2026 under the triple lock. It isn’t paid automatically. You have to claim it, and how much you get depends on your National Insurance record. For most retirees it forms the base of their income rather than the whole of it.
When You Can Get It
You qualify once you reach State Pension age and have at least 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record. State Pension age has been 66 for both men and women since October 2020, but under the Pensions Act 2014 it is now rising from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028.1GOV.UK. State Pension Age Timetables
If you were born between 6 April 1960 and 5 March 1961, your State Pension age is 66 plus a set number of months, calculated on a sliding scale based on your birthday. If you were born on or after 6 March 1961, your State Pension age is 67.2legislation.gov.uk. Pensions Act 2014 – Part 3 Pensionable Age For anyone in that transition window, the exact date matters: apply too early and the claim is rejected, apply late and you can miss payments.
A further rise from 67 to 68 is planned for people born from April 1977 onwards, but that timetable is subject to government review and would need parliamentary approval before it takes effect.
How Much You Get
The amount depends on which system applies to you. The dividing line is 6 April 2016. If you reached State Pension age on or after that date, you fall under the new State Pension. If you reached it before, you fall under the older basic State Pension.
The New State Pension
The full new State Pension is £230.25 a week for 2025–26.3GOV.UK. Benefit and Pension Rates 2025 to 2026 To get the full amount from a record that started entirely after April 2016, you need 35 qualifying years. You need a minimum of 10 to receive any new State Pension at all.4nidirect government services. Understanding and Qualifying for New State Pension Between 10 and 35 years, you get a proportional amount.
If your record includes years before April 2016, it gets more complicated. The government runs two calculations when you claim, one under the old rules and one under the new, and pays you whichever gives the higher figure.5GOV.UK. The New State Pension Transition and Contracting-Out Fact Sheet If the old-rules calculation comes out above the full new rate, the excess is paid as a “protected payment” on top of £230.25.6GOV.UK. The New State Pension – What You’ll Get
One thing catches a lot of people out: contracting out. If you were contracted out at any point before April 2016, you or your employer paid National Insurance at a lower rate, with more going into a workplace or private pension and less into the State Pension. A deduction is applied to your new State Pension to reflect this.6GOV.UK. The New State Pension – What You’ll Get People who were contracted out often need more than 35 qualifying years to reach the full rate. If you worked for a large employer with a final salary or defined benefit scheme, there’s a good chance you were.
The Basic State Pension
If you reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, you receive the basic State Pension, which has a full rate of £176.45 a week for 2025–26. On top of this, you may also receive the Additional State Pension (sometimes called SERPS or S2P) based on your earnings and contributions. The full basic State Pension required 30 qualifying years.
How the Pension Rises Each Year
The State Pension increases every April under the triple lock. Payments rise by whichever is highest of three measures: Consumer Price Index inflation from the previous September, average wage growth from May to July, or 2.5%. The April 2026 increase is 4.8%, driven by earnings growth.
The triple lock is a government policy commitment rather than a law, so a future government could change or remove it. For now, it has kept increases ahead of inflation in most years and matters a lot for long-term planning.
Building Up Qualifying Years
Qualifying years don’t come only from paid employment. National Insurance credits count too, and they cover a range of situations where you aren’t earning but the system still recognises the time.
Credits You Get Automatically
Parents and guardians registered for Child Benefit for a child under 12 receive Class 3 credits automatically, even if they don’t actually receive the payment because of the High Income Child Benefit Charge.7GOV.UK. National Insurance Credits – Eligibility If you’re a stay-at-home parent and never registered for Child Benefit because your partner earns above the threshold, you may be quietly losing qualifying years.
People claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Carer’s Allowance or Universal Credit also receive credits automatically. Maternity Allowance recipients get Class 1 credits.7GOV.UK. National Insurance Credits – Eligibility
Credits You Need to Apply For
Some credits aren’t automatic. If you care for a sick or disabled person for at least 20 hours a week but don’t receive Carer’s Allowance, you need to apply for carer’s credits separately. Foster carers also need to apply. And where one parent receives Child Benefit but the other is the main carer, the credits can be transferred, but only on application.7GOV.UK. National Insurance Credits – Eligibility
Filling Gaps With Voluntary Contributions
Where credits don’t cover a gap, you can pay voluntary Class 3 National Insurance to fill it. The rate for 2025–26 is £17.75 a week.8GOV.UK. Voluntary National Insurance – Rates Paying for a missing year adds roughly £6.57 a week to your State Pension (1/35th of the full rate), so most people recoup the cost within two to three years of drawing the pension. You can normally fill gaps going back six years. For the previous two tax years you pay the rate that applied then; for anything earlier you pay the current year’s rate.
Deferring Your Pension
You don’t have to claim as soon as you reach State Pension age. If you defer, your payments increase by 1% for every nine weeks you delay, working out to just under 5.8% for every full year of deferral.9nidirect government services. Deferring State Pension and What You Will Get You must defer for at least nine weeks to qualify for any increase, and there’s no upper limit.
Deferral often makes sense if you’re still working and would pay higher-rate tax on the pension income, or if you’re in good health and expect to collect for many years. The break-even point on a one-year deferral is roughly 17 to 18 years, which is when the higher weekly payments overtake what you would have collected by claiming straight away.
Check Your Forecast Before You Do Anything
Before you make decisions about voluntary contributions, deferral or retirement timing, check your forecast. The free tool at gov.uk/check-state-pension shows how much you could get, when you can get it, and how to increase it.10GOV.UK. Check Your State Pension Forecast You sign in with a Government Gateway or GOV.UK One Login account, and may need to verify your identity with photo ID.
The forecast also displays your National Insurance record, including any incomplete or missing years. That’s where to spot problems while you still have time to fix them, either by applying for credits or paying voluntary contributions.
How Claiming Works
The State Pension is not paid automatically. About four months before you reach State Pension age, the Pension Service sends an invitation letter with a security code for the online application.11GOV.UK. The New State Pension – How to Claim If the letter doesn’t arrive, you can still claim by phone or post. The earliest you can claim is four months before you reach State Pension age.12GOV.UK. Contact the Pension Service – Claim Your State Pension
To claim you need your National Insurance number, bank or building society details, the date of your most recent marriage, civil partnership or divorce, and dates of any time spent living or working abroad along with any foreign social security numbers.11GOV.UK. The New State Pension – How to Claim Payments arrive every four weeks directly into your bank account.
Delayed claims are not backdated indefinitely. If you put off claiming without formally deferring, the maximum backdate is normally 12 months, so don’t assume the money will sit waiting.
Tax on the State Pension
The State Pension counts as taxable income, but no tax is deducted before it reaches you.13GOV.UK. Tax When You Get a Pension – What’s Taxed Whether you actually owe tax depends on your total annual income from all sources: State Pension, workplace or private pensions, earnings, savings interest, rental income. If the total stays below the Personal Allowance (£12,570 for 2025–26), you pay no income tax.
Where total income exceeds the Personal Allowance, HMRC usually collects the tax owed on your State Pension by adjusting the tax code on your other income, so more tax is taken from a workplace pension for example. If there’s no other income from which tax can be collected, you may need to complete a Self Assessment return.
If You Live Abroad
You can claim and receive the UK State Pension while living overseas, provided you’ve paid enough National Insurance to qualify.14GOV.UK. State Pension if You Retire Abroad There is a significant catch. Your pension is only increased each year if you live in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or a country whose social security agreement with the UK covers annual uprating. In countries without such an agreement, including Australia and Canada, your pension is frozen at the rate it was when you left the UK or first claimed, whichever is later. Over a long retirement, inflation erodes a frozen pension substantially.
If you’ve worked in more than one country, international social security agreements may let you combine contribution periods across countries to meet the UK’s qualifying year requirements. The rules vary, and the Pension Service can advise on your specific situation when you claim.