What Is the State Pension and How Much Will I Get?

What Is the State Pension and Who Gets It?

The State Pension is a payment from the UK government. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) runs it. You get it once you reach State Pension age and have paid enough National Insurance (NI) contributions during your working life.

It is not means-tested. Your income and savings do not affect your entitlement. What matters is your National Insurance record. The more qualifying years you have, the more State Pension you receive, up to the full rate.

There are two versions of the State Pension depending on when you were born:

• New State Pension: For men born on or after 6 April 1951, and women born on or after 6 April 1953. This guide focuses on the new State Pension.
• Basic State Pension (old system): For men born before 6 April 1951 and women born before 6 April 1953. The rules differ, and it is run separately.

You do not get the State Pension automatically. You need to claim it. DWP usually writes to you about four months before you reach State Pension age, with instructions on how to claim.

How Much Is the Full New State Pension? (2026/27 Rates)

For the 2026/27 tax year, the full new State Pension is £241.30 per week. Over 52 weeks, that is £12,547.60. It is paid every four weeks, in arrears, straight into a bank account.

That is the maximum. With fewer than 35 qualifying National Insurance years, you get a proportionally lower amount.

How much is the State Pension per month?

On average, the full new State Pension works out at about £1,045.63 a month (£12,547.60 a year divided by 12). It is not paid monthly. It is paid every four weeks, so each payment is £965.20 (4 × £241.30). 13 payments a year add up to the annual total.

The older basic State Pension, which applies to men born before 6 April 1951 and women born before 6 April 1953, is £184.90 per week in 2026/27. Both rates rose by the same 4.8% in April 2026.

The Triple Lock

Each April, the State Pension goes up under the triple lock. The increase is whichever of these three is highest:

• Inflation (measured by the Consumer Prices Index, CPI, in the previous September)
• Average earnings growth (in the year to July)
• 2.5%

Is the State Pension going up in April 2027?

It will rise under the triple lock. The April 2027 figure is not confirmed yet. Two numbers decide it: average earnings growth, already published over the summer, and September 2026 CPI inflation, which the ONS publishes in October. The government then confirms the new rate, normally in the autumn Budget. We will update this page with the confirmed 2027/28 rate as soon as it is announced.

The State Pension is taxable income. If your total income goes over the Personal Allowance (£12,570 in 2026/27), you may owe Income Tax on it.

That threshold is now uncomfortably close. The full new State Pension of £12,547.60 a year sits just £22.40 below the £12,570 Personal Allowance. The Personal Allowance is frozen. So someone on the full rate with no other income pays no tax today. But a small private pension or a bit of part-time work pushes them over the line. Another triple lock rise on its own would do the same.

How Many National Insurance Qualifying Years Do You Need?

You need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions or credits to get the full new State Pension of £241.30 per week. You need at least 10 qualifying years to get any State Pension at all. Between 10 and 35 years, you get a proportionally reduced amount. A qualifying year is any tax year in which you paid, or were credited with, enough NI contributions.

Partial amounts are calculated as: (number of qualifying years ÷ 35) × £241.30 a week. Extra years beyond 35 do not increase the payment.

One caveat on that formula. If you were paying into the system before April 2016, particularly if you were ever contracted out of the additional State Pension through a workplace scheme, your entitlement is worked out from a transitional starting amount rather than a clean fraction, and you may need more than 35 years to reach the full rate. Your forecast is the number that counts, not the sum.

What Counts as a Qualifying Year?

A year counts if you earned at least the Lower Earnings Limit with one employer. In 2026/27, that limit is £6,708 a year, or £129 a week. That is well below the £12,570 point where you start paying National Insurance. So plenty of people in part-time or term-time work bank qualifying years without paying a penny of NI.

Years also count when you are credited rather than paying. Credits are given, for example, while claiming certain benefits, on statutory parental leave, or while caring for someone. A year does not count if you spent it under the Lower Earnings Limit with no credits. It also does not count if the year was split across several small jobs, and no single employer paid you above the limit. That last one catches out a lot of people juggling shifts.

How to Check Your State Pension Forecast

You can check your National Insurance record and get a State Pension forecast for free using the Check Your State Pension service on gov.uk. You will need a Government Gateway account.

The service shows how many qualifying years you already have. It shows any gaps in your record. It also gives an estimate of what you will receive at State Pension age. It tells you whether you can pay voluntary NI contributions to fill gaps. Paying them can be worthwhile if you are close to the 35-year threshold.

State Pension Age: When Can You Claim?

You cannot claim the State Pension before you reach State Pension age. This is true whatever your number of qualifying years. The current State Pension age in the UK is 66 for both men and women.

State Pension age is scheduled to increase:

• Age 66: The current State Pension age. The rise to 67 is already under way.
• Age 67: This is being phased in between 2026 and 2028. If you were born between 6 April 1960 and 5 March 1961, your State Pension age is 66 plus a set number of months. The number depends on your date of birth. Anyone born on or after 6 March 1961 has a State Pension age of 67.
• Age 68: Scheduled to phase in between 2044 and 2046 under the Pensions Act 2007. A third State Pension age review was launched in July 2025 and has not reported, so this timetable could still move.

If you are in your twenties now, the review process matters more than the current timetable. State Pension age has been raised before, and it is reviewed from time to time. So the age in law today is a planning assumption, not a promise. That is one reason a workplace pension does the heavy lifting for most people. You can normally access it well before State Pension age.

You can choose to defer your State Pension. That means you delay claiming it past your State Pension age. For every nine weeks you defer, your State Pension increases by 1%. That is roughly 5.8% per year. Deferring can be worthwhile if you are still working and do not need the income straight away.

You cannot take your State Pension early as a lump sum. There is no opt-out or early access. You must wait until you reach State Pension age to start receiving it.

Is the State Pension Enough to Live On?

The full new State Pension is £12,547.60 a year in 2026/27. That is the entire payment, before any housing costs. You get it only if you have the full 35 qualifying years. It is designed as a floor, not a full retirement income. That is why it usually sits alongside other savings.

For most people under 30, most retirement money comes from somewhere else:

• A workplace pension. Under auto-enrolment, the minimum total contribution is 8% of qualifying earnings. At least 3% comes from your employer. The other 5% comes from you, including tax relief. Our guide on how UK pensions work covers the thresholds and how tax relief is applied.
• A Lifetime ISA. A Lifetime ISA can be used for a first home or for retirement. Money can be taken out charge-free from age 60. The government adds a 25% bonus on up to £4,000 paid in each year.
• Ordinary savings and investments. Anything held in an ISA is free of UK tax on interest, income and gains. You do not have to declare it on a tax return.

Worth knowing: the State Pension you eventually get is paid for with National Insurance. It is not saved in an account with your name on it. Today's contributions pay today's pensioners. Our breakdown of what National Insurance goes towards sets this out.