How much is the State Pension?

The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026/27, £12,547.60 a year. The full basic State Pension, for people who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, is £184.90 a week. What you get depends on your National Insurance record, so your own figure can be lower, or higher.

Two State Pensions

You get the new State Pension if you reached, or will reach, State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016: men born on or after 6 April 1951 and women born on or after 6 April 1953. Everyone earlier is on the basic State Pension, which had its own rules and could carry an Additional State Pension on top. The rest of this page is about the new State Pension.

The rise for 2026/27

The full rate rose from £230.25 to £241.30 a week in April 2026, 4.8%, in line with the growth in average earnings. Under the rule known as the triple lock, the new State Pension increases each April by whichever is highest of earnings growth, price inflation measured by the Consumer Prices Index, and 2.5%. A protected payment, paid on top of the full rate to some people with pre-2016 records, rises with prices only.

What your qualifying years give you

For a National Insurance record that started after 6 April 2016 the sum is simple: 35 qualifying years gives the full rate, fewer than 10 gives nothing, and in between each year is worth a thirty-fifth of the full rate, about £6.89 a week. A qualifying year is one in which you worked and paid National Insurance, had National Insurance credits, for example for caring or unemployment, or paid voluntary contributions.

Records that began before 6 April 2016 are not that simple. Everyone had a starting amount worked out on 6 April 2016, the higher of what the old rules would have paid and what the new rules would have paid for the record to that date. If you were contracted out of the Additional State Pension, through a workplace pension for example, the starting amount is lower and you will usually need more than 35 years to reach the full rate. If the old rules would have paid more, the difference is a protected payment on top. Your State Pension forecast on gov.uk shows your own figure, your years and any gaps; treat it as the authority.

Filling gaps

You can pay voluntary contributions for a year that does not count. Class 3 costs £18.40 a week in 2026/27, £956.80 for a full year; Class 2, for people who were self-employed, is £3.65 a week. You can normally go back six years, and the deadline is 5 April: a gap in 2025/26 can be filled until 5 April 2032. For someone whose extra year counts, £956.80 buys about £6.89 a week, £358.28 a year for life, which pays for itself in under three years of State Pension. Whether a year counts is the catch: it does not if you already have 35, and for some pre-2016 records a bought year adds nothing. Check the forecast, and where it says so, ask the Future Pension Centre, before paying.

Deferring

You do not have to claim at State Pension age. For every 9 weeks you defer, the new State Pension rises by 1% for life, just under 5.8% for a full year: on the full rate gov.uk gives £13.99 a week more for deferring 52 weeks. The minimum is 9 weeks. People who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 get 1% for every 5 weeks, about 10.4% a year, or a lump sum after deferring for at least 12 months.

Claiming, and tax

It is not paid automatically. A letter inviting you to claim arrives before State Pension age; if you are within three months of it and have no letter, you can ask for an invitation code online. The State Pension counts as income for tax, but no tax is taken off it before it is paid. If you also have a private or workplace pension, HMRC adjusts that pension's tax code so its provider takes the tax due on the State Pension. If the State Pension is your only income and it is under the personal allowance, there is no tax to pay; if it is over, HMRC sends a Simple Assessment bill. If you are self-employed, it goes on your Self Assessment return.

Your own figure

Type your date of birth and the qualifying years from your forecast for what your record is worth now and at State Pension age, and the years between stopping work and the State Pension starting.