UK State Pension

The State Pension is the UK’s contributory retirement benefit, paid by the Department for Work and Pensions. You build it through qualifying years on your National Insurance record: years in which you paid National Insurance on earnings, received National Insurance credits, for example while unemployed, ill or claiming Child Benefit for a child under 12, or paid voluntary contributions. Savings and other income don’t reduce it.

The new State Pension covers men born on or after 6 April 1951 and women born on or after 6 April 1953, who reached State Pension age from 6 April 2016. People who reached it earlier get the basic State Pension, £184.90 a week at the full rate in 2026/27, plus any Additional State Pension.

You have to claim it, usually after an invitation letter shortly before State Pension age, and it’s normally paid every four weeks. You can claim while still working, and employees stop paying National Insurance once they reach State Pension age. The closest US equivalent is Social Security, though the UK formula counts years rather than earnings. Canada splits the same job between the CPP and OAS.

For 2026/27 the full new State Pension is £241.30 a week, or £12,547.60 over 52 weeks. If your National Insurance record began after 5 April 2016, you need 10 qualifying years to get anything and 35 for the full rate, and each year in between is worth one thirty-fifth of the full rate, about £6.89 a week.

Most people nearing retirement have years from before April 2016, so their amount starts from a transitional figure. The Department for Work and Pensions set a starting amount on your record to 5 April 2016: the higher of the pension under the old rules and a calculation under the new ones, both reduced for any years you were contracted out of the Additional State Pension through a workplace or personal pension. If the starting amount is below the full rate, each later qualifying year adds about £6.89 a week until you reach the full rate or State Pension age. If it’s above, the excess is paid on top as a protected payment, which rises with prices rather than under the triple lock.

Contracting out is why some people with more than 35 years still get less than the full rate. The only reliable figure for you is your State Pension forecast, which also shows gaps in your record.

State Pension age is the earliest you can receive the State Pension. US Social Security can start at 62 at a reduced rate, years before full retirement age; the UK has no early claim. The age is 66 for anyone born between 6 October 1954 and 5 April 1960, and the move to 67 is under way now: people born from 6 April 1960 to 5 March 1961 reach State Pension age at 66 plus one to eleven months, depending on their birth month, and everyone born from 6 March 1961 to 5 April 1977 reaches it at 67. Current law then phases in 68 between 2044 and 2046, reaching everyone born on or after 6 April 1978.

The timetable is reviewed at least every five years, and Parliament can move the later dates, so younger savers should treat 68 as a planning assumption rather than a promise. State Pension age is also separate from the age you can draw a private pension such as a SIPP, 55 rising to 57 in April 2028.

If you don’t claim at State Pension age, the pension defers automatically. After at least nine weeks it rises 1% for every nine weeks deferred, just under 5.8% a year: a full pension deferred 52 weeks earns £13.94 a week extra for life, and that extra usually rises with CPI each year. Instead, you can take up to 52 weeks of missed payments as a one-off sum, without interest. The government says it takes over 15 years to earn back a year of deferred full pension, a long break-even next to the US 8% a year of delayed retirement credits.

Once in payment, the new State Pension rises each April under the triple lock, by the highest of average earnings growth, CPI inflation or 2.5%. The 4.8% rise for 2026/27 followed earnings, a stronger promise than a price-only cost-of-living adjustment, though increases stop for pensioners living in some countries abroad.

The State Pension is taxable income but paid without tax taken off. The full rate of £12,547.60 is £22.40 below the £12,570 personal allowance, so almost any other income is taxed. HMRC usually collects the tax through the tax code on a job or private pension, or sends a Simple Assessment bill if the State Pension is your only income and it goes over your personal allowance.

Missing years can often be bought. Class 3 voluntary contributions cost £18.40 a week in 2026/27, or £956.80 for a full year, and you can usually fill gaps from the past six tax years, with a 5 April deadline each year: gaps from 2025/26 can be filled until 5 April 2032. The previous two tax years are charged at their original rates; older years cost the current rate. Some self-employed people with low profits can pay Class 2 at £3.65 a week instead.

Before paying, check whether National Insurance credits already cover the year, and check your forecast. A voluntary year adds nothing if you would reach the full rate anyway through years you’ll work before State Pension age, and a contracted-out history can change the arithmetic. Where it does help, each year adds about £6.89 a week for life, a guaranteed, inflation-linked addition to retirement income.