What is the new State Pension full rate for 2026/27?

The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week from 6 April 2026, equivalent to about £12,547.60 a year. This figure was confirmed by the DWP in the "Proposed benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027" publication and reflects the triple-lock uprating from the £230.25 a week 2025/26 figure. To receive the full rate you need 35 qualifying National Insurance years on your record. Anyone with between 10 and 35 qualifying years receives a pro-rated amount calculated as (years / 35) x £241.30. Below 10 qualifying years no new State Pension is payable, though Pension Credit may be available separately.

How many NI qualifying years do I need for a full State Pension?

For the new State Pension (anyone reaching State Pension Age on or after 6 April 2016) the answer is 35 qualifying years for the full rate, with 10 qualifying years as the minimum to receive any new State Pension. For the old basic State Pension (anyone who reached State Pension Age before 6 April 2016) the answer was 30 qualifying years for the full rate of £184.90 a week. A "qualifying year" can be earned through employment paying Class 1 NI above the Lower Earnings Limit, through self-employed Class 2 contributions, through Class 3 voluntary contributions, or through NI credits granted automatically to carers, parents of children under 12 claiming Child Benefit, jobseekers and certain other claimant groups.

What is the triple lock?

The triple lock is the annual uprating rule for the State Pension. Each April the State Pension rises by the highest of three measures: CPI inflation in the September before the new tax year, average weekly earnings growth in May to July of the previous year, or a 2.5% floor. It has applied since 2010 and is the chief reason State Pension has grown materially faster than working-age benefits over the last 15 years. The triple lock was partly suspended in 2022/23 (only the 2.5% floor was used to neutralise the post-COVID earnings distortion) and fully restored from 2023/24. The 2026/27 uprate used CPI September 2025 as the binding measure.

What is the State Pension Age timetable?

State Pension Age (SPA) is 66 for anyone reaching SPA before 6 May 2026. From 6 May 2026 to 5 March 2028 SPA rises on a sliding scale from 66 to 67 - your exact SPA depends on your date of birth and is published on gov.uk/state-pension-age. The Pensions Act 2014 then schedules a further rise to 68 between 6 April 2044 and 5 April 2046, subject to a statutory review of life expectancy and other factors. Anyone affected by the rises should plan around their personal SPA, not the headline age - the gov.uk State Pension Age calculator returns your exact date.

How much does a voluntary Class 3 NI contribution cost in 2026/27?

The Class 3 voluntary NI rate for the 2026/27 tax year is £18.40 a week, equivalent to £956.80 for a full qualifying year (52 weeks x £18.40). This is the standard rate used to fill gaps from the most recent six tax years and from years 2006-07 onwards under the temporary extended window. One full Class 3 year adds approximately 1/35th of £241.30 = £6.89 a week or £358.28 a year to your eventual new State Pension. The cost is therefore recovered after roughly 2.7 years of receiving the pension (£956.80 / £358.28). Anyone expecting to live 3+ years beyond SPA almost always benefits from filling gaps, ignoring tax treatment and time value of money.

What is the extended deadline for filling NI gaps for 2006-2018?

Normally voluntary Class 3 contributions can be paid for the previous six tax years only. As part of a transitional easement after the introduction of the new State Pension, HMRC and DWP opened a window to fill gaps as far back as the 2006-07 tax year. This extended window was originally scheduled to close 5 April 2023, was extended to 5 April 2025 after demand overwhelmed the helpline, and was extended again to 5 April 2027 by the November 2024 Budget. From 6 April 2027 onwards the standard six-year rule resumes. Anyone with old gaps from 2006-07 to 2018-19 should check before April 2027 - missing the window means those years are permanently unfillable.

How does deferring the State Pension work?

If you reached State Pension Age on or after 6 April 2016 (new State Pension regime) and choose not to claim, your eventual weekly amount is uplifted by 1% for every 9 complete weeks of deferral. Across a full year of deferral that is approximately 5.8% uplift (52 weeks / 9 = 5.77 increments of 1%). The uplift compounds with the annual triple-lock increase, so deferring through a year of high CPI can be financially attractive. The break-even point is typically around 17 years post-SPA - deferring is worth it if you reasonably expect to live well past your mid-80s and you do not need the income now. Under the old basic State Pension the deferral rate was 1% per 5 weeks (10.4% a year) with an option to take a lump sum, both significantly more generous.

Is the State Pension taxable?

Yes. The State Pension is taxable as earned income for Income Tax purposes - it counts towards your Personal Allowance and into the basic, higher and additional-rate bands like any other pensions income or earnings. However, HMRC does not withhold tax at source from the State Pension itself. Instead, the tax owed is usually collected through PAYE on any private pension or part-time earnings (HMRC adjusts your tax code to deduct the State Pension liability from the other income source), or through Self Assessment if your tax affairs are complex. National Insurance is not payable on the State Pension and stops on all earnings once you reach SPA. Anyone with the State Pension as their only income (about £12,547.60 a year at the full new rate) sits just below the £12,570 Personal Allowance and pays no Income Tax in practice.

Do years on Child Benefit count as NI qualifying years?

Yes - this is one of the most important NI credit mechanisms and is widely overlooked. A parent (or guardian) claiming Child Benefit for a child under 12 automatically receives Class 3 NI credits for each week of the claim, even if they are not working. The credits count fully towards both new State Pension qualifying years and basic State Pension qualifying years. The catch: the credit attaches to whoever physically claims the Child Benefit, not the household. If a higher-earning parent claims while their lower-earning partner takes time out of work to provide childcare, the lower-earning parent loses years of NI credit they would have received. The fix is to transfer the Child Benefit claim to the lower earner or, if Child Benefit has been opted out of entirely to avoid HICBC, claim and opt out of payment only (the NI credits still accrue).

What is Carer’s Credit?

Carer's Credit is a Class 3 NI credit available to anyone caring for one or more disabled people for at least 20 hours a week. It does not pay any money - it just protects the carer's NI record by counting the period as qualifying years for State Pension. To claim, the cared-for person normally needs to be receiving a qualifying benefit (Attendance Allowance, the daily living component of PIP, the middle or higher rate care component of DLA, Constant Attendance Allowance, Armed Forces Independence Payment). If they do not, a "Care Certificate" signed by a health or social care professional can still establish eligibility. Carer's Credit fills the gap between informal caring (typically a working-age person stepping back from paid work) and the formal Carer's Allowance benefit, which itself also gives NI credits but has a strict earnings cap and means-test.

Can I inherit State Pension from my spouse?

Under the new State Pension the inheritance rules are deliberately narrower than under the old basic / additional State Pension. A surviving spouse or civil partner can inherit at most 50% of any "Protected Payment" their late partner had built up (the slice of their starting amount that exceeded the new State Pension full rate at 6 April 2016, arising from old SERPS / S2P accrual). They cannot inherit the basic new State Pension entitlement itself. Under the old system the surviving partner could use their spouse's NI record to top up their own basic State Pension entitlement and could inherit a portion of additional State Pension. People in mixed situations - one partner under the new regime, one under the old - are governed by complex transitional rules detailed in the DWP "State Pension if you're widowed" guidance.

What is Pension Credit?

Pension Credit is a separate, means-tested benefit that tops up the income of low-income pensioners to a minimum guarantee level (£227.10 a week single, £346.60 a week couple in 2026/27 - check gov.uk for confirmed figures). It is not paid automatically; about a third of eligible pensioners do not claim it. Receiving Pension Credit also unlocks several "passport" benefits including Housing Benefit, full Council Tax Reduction, a free TV licence for over-75s, Cold Weather Payment and the Warm Home Discount, which often exceed the headline Pension Credit award itself. It is distinct from the State Pension - you can receive both. Pensioners with less than 35 qualifying NI years receiving a pro-rated new State Pension are exactly the cohort most likely to benefit from claiming Pension Credit.

UK State Pension Guide (2026/27)

The State Pension is the foundation of most UK retirement income. This page covers the full mechanics for 2026/27: the new State Pension full rate of £241.30 a week, the 35 qualifying NI years needed, the triple lock uprating rule, State Pension Age (SPA) currently transitioning from 66 to 67, the Class 3 voluntary contribution route to fill NI gaps (including the extended deadline to 5 April 2027 for years 2006-2018), how deferral works, and the tax treatment of pension income. Every figure on this page traces back to gov.uk and the DWP "Proposed benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027" publication.

1. Overview

The State Pension is the bedrock of UK retirement income. It is a contributory, non-means-tested benefit paid weekly from State Pension Age (SPA) until death, funded out of current National Insurance receipts under a pay-as-you-go model rather than from any accumulated personal fund. For 2026/27 the full new State Pension is £241.30 a week (about £12,547.60 a year), and the full basic State Pension (for people who reached SPA before 6 April 2016) is £184.90 a week (about £9,614.80 a year). Both figures rise each April under the triple lock.

Around 12.7 million pensioners receive the State Pension at any given time, and for most retirees it represents 40-60% of gross retirement income, with private pensions, ISA drawdown and earnings filling the rest. The State Pension is taxable as earned income but does not have tax withheld at source - HMRC instead collects the tax through PAYE on private pensions or earnings, or through Self Assessment. The eligibility mechanism is the National Insurance record: 35 qualifying years gets the full new rate, 10 is the minimum, and anyone between is pro-rated linearly. For modelling your own entitlement use the State Pension calculator, which applies the same DWP-published rates as this page.

2. New State Pension vs Old State Pension

The defining boundary in UK State Pension policy is 6 April 2016. Anyone who reached SPA before that date is on the old system; anyone reaching SPA on or after is on the new single-tier system. The two regimes differ structurally in design, qualifying years and additional-pension treatment.

The old State Pension (pre-6 April 2016). The old system had two layers. The basic State Pension provided a flat-rate amount based on 30 qualifying NI years, paying £184.90 a week at the full rate for 2026/27. Bolted on top was the additional State Pension - originally SERPS (1978-2002), then the State Second Pension or S2P (2002-2016) - which paid extra on top of the basic rate based on a complex formula tied to your earnings history. People could "contract out" of SERPS / S2P in exchange for paying reduced NI contributions and accruing equivalent rights in a private pension instead. The result was a sprawling patchwork: two people with identical work histories could retire with materially different State Pensions purely because of contracting-out choices and SERPS / S2P accrual rates.

The new State Pension (from 6 April 2016). The new single-tier State Pension replaced both layers with a single flat-rate payment - £241.30 a week at the full rate - based on 35 qualifying NI years with a 10-year minimum. There is no additional State Pension. SERPS / S2P accrual that pre-dates the cutover is preserved via a "starting amount" calculation: at 6 April 2016 the DWP calculated what each person would have received under the old rules and compared it with the new rules; the higher of the two became your starting amount. Anyone whose starting amount exceeded the new full rate has the excess as a "Protected Payment" that uprates only by CPI (not the full triple lock). The new regime also re-calibrated NI credits for contracted-out years. For anyone now in their 50s or older the old contracting-out history still affects the calculation - the gov.uk State Pension forecast tool resolves the arithmetic on a personal basis.

Which system applies to me? If you were born on or after 6 April 1951 (men) or 6 April 1953 (women) you are under the new system. If you were born earlier you are under the old system. The hard date cutoff applies regardless of when you actually claim - someone born in March 1953 who defers claiming for ten years is still on the old basic State Pension. The two systems are not interchangeable. For detailed pension-planning context across private and State Pensions see the pension comparison guide and the pension tax relief guide.

3. New State Pension 2026/27 figure

For the 2026/27 tax year the full new State Pension is £241.30 a week, equivalent to £12,547.60 a year on a 52-week basis. The figure was confirmed in the DWP "Proposed benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027" publication, reflecting the triple-lock uprating from the £230.25 a week figure that applied during 2025/26. The CPI September 2025 measure was the binding element of the triple lock for this April uprating.

Pro-rating below 35 years. Anyone with between 10 and 35 qualifying years receives years / 35 times the full rate. A claimant with 28 qualifying years gets 28/35 = 80% of £241.30 = £193.04 a week (£10,038.08 a year). One with 20 qualifying years gets 20/35 = 57.1% = £137.89 a week (£7,170.28 a year). The minimum 10-year threshold is a hard cliff: below that no new State Pension is payable, though Pension Credit may apply.

Basic State Pension 2026/27. For the cohort still under the old system, the full basic State Pension is £184.90 a week (about £9,614.80 a year) with 30 qualifying years, plus any additional State Pension (SERPS / S2P) earned before 6 April 2016 and any Graduated Retirement Benefit from the pre-1975 era. The basic State Pension also uprates by the triple lock; the additional State Pension uprates by CPI only.

Forecast cross-check. The published full rate is the legal maximum. Your personal new State Pension may be higher or lower depending on contracting-out adjustments, Protected Payment from pre-2016 SERPS / S2P accrual, and any Class 3 voluntary contributions paid to fill gaps. The only authoritative number is the one shown in your gov.uk State Pension forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension-forecast - that is the figure the DWP will actually pay.

4. NI qualifying years

A qualifying year is a tax year in which you either paid sufficient National Insurance contributions or were credited with them. The route to qualifying differs by NI class.

a. Class 1: Employed

Employees pay Class 1 NI through PAYE. A tax year counts as qualifying if your earnings reached the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) for the year, which is £6,708 a year (£129 a week) in 2026/27. Crucially, earnings between the LEL and the Primary Threshold (£12,570 a year) do not actually incur NI payment but do count as "credited" contributions - so a worker on £7,000 a year still earns a qualifying year despite paying no NI in cash. Above the Primary Threshold the main rate (8% on the band up to £50,270, 2% above) applies and the year continues to qualify. Multiple part-time jobs are tested separately per employment, so two jobs each at £6,000 a year do not aggregate into a qualifying year - this is one of the more common NI-record gaps for low-paid multi-job workers.

b. Class 2: Self-employed

Self-employed traders pay Class 2 NI. From April 2024 the compulsory Class 2 charge was abolished for anyone with profits above the Small Profits Threshold (SPT) of £7,105 a year in 2026/27 - they are treated as having paid Class 2 and earn a qualifying year automatically without any cash payment. Self-employed traders with profits between £6,725 (the lower bound) and the SPT continue to receive automatic NI credits. Those with profits below £6,725 (or who choose not to register at all) can pay voluntary Class 2 at £3.65 a week in 2026/27 (£189.80 a year for a full qualifying year) - significantly cheaper than Class 3. Voluntary Class 2 is the cheapest route to a qualifying year for any UK self-employed person below the SPT, including freelancers with a side income beneath their day-job earnings.

c. Class 3: Voluntary

Class 3 is the catch-all voluntary contribution used to fill NI gaps. The rate is £18.40 a week in 2026/27, or £956.80 for a full year (52 weeks). Class 3 contributions can fill gaps from the previous six tax years (and from 2006-07 onwards under the extended window that runs until 5 April 2027 - see section 8). One Class 3 year adds 1/35 of the full new State Pension, currently 1/35 x £241.30 = £6.89 a week or £358.28 a year. The cash recovery period is just under three years of receiving the pension, making Class 3 one of the highest-return investments most working-age adults will encounter.

d. NI Credits

Several life circumstances automatically award NI credits at Class 3 equivalent without requiring any cash payment. The main categories:

Child Benefit recipient for a child under 12: automatic Class 3 credits.
Carer's Allowance recipient or Carer's Credit (20+ hours / week caring): Class 3 credits.
Universal Credit recipient (working or not): Class 3 credits.
Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance: Class 1 credits.
Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity / Paternity / Adoption Pay: credited as if working.
On a government-approved training course aged 18-25: Class 1 credits.
HM Forces spouse / civil partner accompanying overseas: Class 1 credits.

The most common missed credit is the Child Benefit one - if a higher-earning parent claims while the lower-earning partner provides childcare, the lower-earning partner loses years of NI credit. The fix is to file Form CF411A to transfer the credit retrospectively, or to swap the Child Benefit claimant going forwards.

5. Triple lock

The triple lock is the annual uprating rule for both the new State Pension full rate and the old basic State Pension. Each April the rate increases by whichever is the highest of:

CPI inflation in the September immediately preceding the new tax year.
Average weekly earnings (AWE) growth over the May-July period of the previous calendar year, measured by ONS.
2.5% floor.

The triple lock was introduced in 2010 by the Coalition government with the explicit policy aim of restoring State Pension as a share of average earnings, which had eroded since the 1980s when basic State Pension was switched to RPI uprating only. The earnings-link element was the lever that did the work: in years where wages grow faster than prices, the State Pension keeps pace with working-age living standards rather than falling behind.

The 2022 suspension. The triple lock was partly suspended for the 2022/23 tax year. The reason was the post-pandemic earnings distortion: AWE growth in May-July 2021 was measured at over 8% because the comparator (May-July 2020) had been depressed by furlough. Applying that as the uprate would have produced an 8%+ State Pension rise driven entirely by base-period effects rather than real earnings growth, so Parliament legislated a one-year override using the higher of CPI or 2.5% only. The earnings limb was restored for the 2023/24 uprating and has applied normally since.

Recent uprates. 2022/23 used 3.1% (CPI September 2021 - 2.5% floor would have been lower). 2023/24 used 10.1% (CPI September 2022, in the post-Ukraine inflation spike). 2024/25 used 8.5% (AWE May-July 2023). 2025/26 used 4.1% (AWE May-July 2024). 2026/27 used the CPI September 2025 measure as the binding element. The cumulative effect of the triple lock since 2010 has lifted the State Pension materially above where pure earnings or pure CPI indexation would have placed it.

Political risk. Both the IFS and OBR have flagged that the triple lock is not sustainable indefinitely because of the ratchet effect: in any year where one of the three measures spikes (typically AWE recovering from a downturn, or a CPI inflation shock), the State Pension ratchets up and never falls back. Successive governments have committed to the triple lock through 2029/30. What happens beyond that is genuinely uncertain - the Resolution Foundation and IFS have both proposed alternative "smoothed earnings link" formulae that would deliver similar long-run generosity at lower fiscal volatility.

6. State Pension Age timetable

State Pension Age (SPA) is the age at which you can first claim the State Pension. It is set by legislation and has risen materially over the last 15 years, with two further rises currently scheduled.

SPA is currently 66. Everyone reaching SPA before 6 May 2026 has an SPA of exactly 66. The equalisation of men's and women's SPA at 65 happened in November 2018, then both rose together to 66 between December 2018 and October 2020. The female SPA rise from 60 to 65 was legislated by the Pensions Act 1995 and accelerated by the Pensions Act 2011 - this was the basis of the WASPI campaign from women born in the 1950s who argued they had inadequate notice. Two WASPI judicial reviews have been settled or dismissed; the campaign for compensation is ongoing.

SPA rises from 66 to 67 between 6 May 2026 and 5 March 2028. Anyone reaching SPA in this window has a personal SPA between 66 and 67 depending on date of birth, on a roughly month-per-month sliding scale. The gov.uk State Pension Age calculator returns the exact date for any input date of birth. The 67 rise was legislated by the Pensions Act 2014. Anyone born between 6 April 1960 and 5 March 1961 sits inside the transition.

Further rise from 67 to 68 between 6 April 2044 and 5 April 2046. Currently scheduled by the Pensions Act 2014, this affects anyone born after 5 April 1977. The timetable is subject to a statutory review of life expectancy and economic factors. A 2023 independent review (the Neville-Rolfe Report) recommended bringing the 68 threshold forward to 2041-2043, but the government deferred a decision pending more recent life expectancy data, which worsened materially after the pandemic. Anyone planning retirement around an SPA assumption beyond 2040 should treat 68 as a likely floor and check legislative updates.

Why this matters operationally. Claiming before your personal SPA is impossible; the State Pension simply does not exist for you yet. The difference between SPA 66 and SPA 67 is one year of State Pension income that anyone affected has to bridge from other sources - private pension drawdown, ISA withdrawals, earnings, or accepting reduced expenditure. The 67 to 68 rise will affect many readers of this page directly. For pension-side bridging mechanics see the pension drawdown calculator.

7. Deferral mechanics

The State Pension is not paid automatically. You have to claim it (or deliberately defer it) when you reach your personal SPA. If you defer, the eventual weekly payment is uplifted to compensate for the missed years of income.

New State Pension deferral. Under the new regime (SPA reached on or after 6 April 2016) you get a 1% uplift for every 9 complete weeks of deferral. Across a full year that compounds to approximately 5.8% (52/9 = 5.78 increments of 1%). The uplift applies after the annual triple-lock increase, so deferring through a year of high CPI compounds the two effects. Each subsequent year of deferral adds another 5.8% on the new base. There is no lump-sum option under the new system - the uplift is delivered exclusively as higher weekly payments for life.

Old basic State Pension deferral. Under the old regime the deferral rate was 1% per 5 weeks (10.4% a year), and you had the option of taking a one-off lump sum instead of the weekly uplift. Both options were significantly more generous than the new-system rates and were a deliberate target for retrenchment in the 2014 reforms. Anyone who has already deferred under the old system keeps the old rate on the deferred slice.

Break-even arithmetic. A new-system pensioner deferring for one full year forgoes one year of payment (£12,547.60 at the full 2026/27 rate) in exchange for a 5.8% lifetime uplift on £241.30 a week, or about £14 a week / £728 a year. The cash break-even is 17.2 years - meaning you need to live 17+ years past your SPA for the deferral to pay off in nominal terms. Real-terms break-even after including the time value of money is closer to 20-22 years. Anyone with strong family longevity, no income need at SPA, and a clean health profile may find this attractive; the median pensioner does not.

8. Filling NI gaps via Class 3

Class 3 voluntary contributions are the standard mechanism for filling gaps in your NI record to reach 35 qualifying years. The cost in 2026/27 is £18.40 a week or £956.80 for a full qualifying year.

Step 1: check your NI record. Log into your gov.uk personal tax account and open the National Insurance record summary. It lists every tax year since you started paying NI, whether each year qualifies in full, qualifies partially or has a gap, and the cost (if any) to fill the gap. The same screen reports your gov.uk State Pension forecast - the projected weekly amount at your SPA. Compare the forecast with the £241.30 full rate to see whether filling gaps will move the needle.

Step 2: identify worthwhile years. Each filled year adds 1/35 of the full new State Pension = £6.89 a week / £358.28 a year. The break-even point at £956.80 cost is about 2.7 years of receiving the pension. Anyone in normal health reaching SPA at 67 has a life expectancy of 19-22 years from SPA, so the typical recovery is 7-8 times the cost. There is no point filling years if you already have 35 qualifying years or are projected to reach 35 through your remaining working life - extra years do not add to the weekly amount.

Step 3: respect the deadlines.

Standard six-year window. You can pay Class 3 for any of the previous six tax years (currently 2026/27 back to 2020-21).
Extended window for 2006-07 to 2018-19, deadline 5 April 2027. Anyone with gaps in those years can still buy them up through that deadline. After 6 April 2027 the standard six-year rule resumes and the older years are permanently unfillable.
Standard rate vs back-rate. Years bought in the year immediately following are priced at the current Class 3 rate. Years 2 to 6 years back are priced at the rate in force for the relevant year, often slightly lower.

Step 4: confirm the years will count. Not every gap is worth filling. People who reached SPA close to April 2016 often have a "starting amount" calculation under the new State Pension transitional rules where buying back pre-2016 years does not increase the final figure because the starting amount was already at or above the new full rate. Before paying anything, ring the Future Pension Centre on 0800 731 0181 to confirm that the specific year you intend to buy will increase your forecast - this is a free, authoritative check and avoids paying £956.80 for no benefit.

Step 5: paying. Once confirmed, pay via online banking (HMRC sort code 08 32 20, account 12001004, reference your NI number followed by 'IC' then your surname), by direct debit, by cheque or by phone. The DWP typically updates your State Pension forecast within 8-10 weeks of payment. Keep the bank confirmation in case the DWP record does not update.

Worked break-even example. Sarah, 50, checks her gov.uk forecast. She has 22 qualifying years and will accrue another 11 by SPA (67), so 33 years projected. The forecast shows £227.51 a week (33/35 of £241.30). She buys two Class 3 years at £956.80 each = £1,913.60. Her projected forecast rises to the full £241.30 a week. The uplift is £13.79 a week / £716.90 a year. Recovery period: £1,913.60 / £716.90 = 2.7 years. After 2.7 years past SPA she is in pure gain; over the typical 20-year retirement she pockets a net £12,419 (gross before tax) on a £1,913.60 cash outlay. Even after applying basic-rate Income Tax on the State Pension via her private-pension PAYE, the net return is still about £9,935 on £1,913.60 - a 419% return over 20 years from a contribution made today.

9. Pension forecast tool

The gov.uk State Pension forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension is the authoritative tool for checking your personal entitlement. It pulls live data from HMRC's NI record system and DWP's State Pension calculation engine, so the figure it returns is exactly what you will receive at SPA on current record (subject to triple-lock uprating each year between now and then).

What it shows. Your current accrued weekly amount, your forecast at SPA assuming you continue accruing qualifying years at the current pace, the highest you can reach by paying voluntary Class 3 contributions, and a year-by-year breakdown of every NI year since you started paying. Each year is marked as a full qualifying year, a part year, a non-qualifying gap, or a year that cannot be filled (typically because the deadline has passed). The cost of each fillable gap is shown alongside.

Access. You need a gov.uk One Login account (which has replaced the older Government Gateway for new sign-ups). The verification needs your NI number, date of birth, and one identity check item (UK passport, driving licence, recent payslip or P60). The whole signup takes about 10 minutes and then the forecast loads immediately. Forecasts can also be requested by phone via 0800 731 0181 (Future Pension Centre) or by post via Form BR19 - the online route is materially faster.

Run our calculator too. The SalaryTax State Pension calculator applies the same 2026/27 DWP rates and is useful for scenario testing - what does my pension look like if I retire with 30 vs 35 vs 38 qualifying years, on either the new or the old scheme. It is not personalised to your NI record (so cannot tell you whether you have hidden gaps), but it gives you the same arithmetic the DWP uses for the headline figure.

10. Specialist cases

Several common situations sit outside the standard qualifying-years arithmetic. Worth flagging:

a. Married women's reduced rate

Before 1977 married women could opt to pay a reduced NI rate (the so-called "small stamp"), in exchange for waiving their own State Pension entitlement and relying on their husband's record instead. This option was closed to new entrants from April 1977 but anyone who had elected the small stamp before then continued under it until they chose to revoke or stopped working. Many women now reaching SPA have a low NI record because of this election. Under the old basic State Pension they can claim a married woman's rate (60% of the basic rate) based on their husband's NI record. Under the new State Pension a small transitional add-on exists for women in this group, but the rules are intricate - the Future Pension Centre is the right port of call.

b. Inheriting from a spouse

Under the old system a surviving spouse or civil partner could use the deceased's NI record to substitute or top up their own basic State Pension, and could inherit between 50% and 100% of any SERPS / S2P additional pension depending on the deceased's age at death. Under the new system the inheritance rules are narrower: a surviving spouse can inherit at most 50% of any Protected Payment (the slice of the starting amount above the new full rate) but cannot inherit the new State Pension itself - it remains individual. Where one spouse is on the old system and the other on the new, complex transitional rules apply; the DWP "State Pension if you're widowed" guidance is the canonical reference.

c. Divorce and pension sharing

Divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership creates a pension-sharing right over private pensions and over any Additional State Pension (SERPS / S2P) accrued by the other party. The new basic State Pension entitlement is not shareable - it is calculated solely on each individual's own NI record. Pension-sharing orders are made by the court at the time of the divorce and operate via a percentage debit from one party's record and a credit to the other's. They are irreversible.

d. Pension Credit

Pension Credit is a means-tested top-up benefit for low-income pensioners, separate from the State Pension itself. It sets a minimum guaranteed weekly income of £227.10 single / £346.60 couple (check gov.uk for confirmed 2026/27 figures) and tops up below that line. Around a third of eligible pensioners do not claim it. Claiming Pension Credit also unlocks Housing Benefit, full Council Tax Reduction, a free TV licence for over-75s, Cold Weather Payment and the Warm Home Discount. Anyone receiving a pro-rated State Pension (fewer than 35 qualifying years) is exactly the group most likely to be eligible.

11. Pension forecast worked example

The setup. Maya, 48, was born in November 1977. Her personal SPA is 68 (under the 2044-2046 rise timetable), giving her 20 working years to her SPA. She has worked since age 22 with two career breaks: 4 years out of paid work after each of her two children (children now aged 16 and 13). Her gov.uk NI record shows 22 full qualifying years from employment and 6 qualifying years from Child Benefit credits (claimed for both children up to age 12). Her total current qualifying years: 28. Her gov.uk forecast shows £193.04 a week (28/35 of £241.30).

The gap. 7 qualifying years short of the full 35. Two of her career-break years are NOT covered by Child Benefit credits because in those years her elder child had already turned 12 and her younger child had not yet been born. Those two years sit as gaps on her record.

Option A: ride it out. Maya plans to work another 20 years to SPA 68. Even with 20 more qualifying years she would reach 28 + 20 = 48, capped at 35. So her remaining working years will overflow the 35-cap and her forecast will reach the full £241.30 a week through employment alone. No Class 3 contributions needed. Total cost to her: £0.

Option B: buy back the two career-break gap years now. Cost: 2 x £956.80 = £1,913.60. She still reaches 35 qualifying years through future employment, so her forecast does not change from Option A. The Class 3 contributions are wasted. The Future Pension Centre would flag this and refund the contributions.

Option C: career change to part-time freelance from age 55, with profits below the SPT. Now Maya has 22 employed years to 55, then 13 self-employed years to 68. If she pays voluntary Class 2 at £3.65 a week (£189.80 a year) for those 13 years, she accrues 13 more qualifying years for a total of 22 + 6 + 13 = 41, again capped at 35. Cost: 13 x £189.80 = £2,467.40 of voluntary Class 2 over 13 years. Result: full £241.30 a week State Pension at SPA, secured at the cheapest possible rate.

Option D: Maya retires fully at 55, no further work or NI activity. She would lock in at 28 + 0 = 28 qualifying years and a forecast of £193.04 a week. If she wants the full rate she needs to buy 7 Class 3 years at £956.80 (assuming 2026/27 rates) = £6,697.60 total cost. That seems steep but adds £48.26 a week / £2,509.52 a year for life. Recovery period: 2.7 years. Over 20 years of retirement post-SPA the gross return is £50,190 on £6,697.60 outlay.

Lesson. The forecast tool and the Future Pension Centre between them dictate whether voluntary contributions are worthwhile - never pay Class 3 without first confirming the year will count. People in their 40s and 50s who plan to keep working are usually best served by doing nothing; people considering early retirement or career change should plan their NI record alongside their financial retirement plan.

12. Tax treatment of State Pension

The State Pension is taxable as earned income for Income Tax purposes. It counts towards your Personal Allowance and into the basic, higher and additional-rate Income Tax bands like any other pension income or earnings. National Insurance is NOT payable on the State Pension and stops on all earnings from your SPA onwards.

HMRC does not withhold tax at source from the State Pension itself. The DWP pays the gross weekly amount into your bank account. The tax owed is recovered through one of two routes. If you also receive a private pension or have part-time earnings paid through PAYE, HMRC reduces your tax code on that source by the State Pension amount, so the private-pension or salary PAYE deduction includes Income Tax on the State Pension. If your only income is the State Pension, or it is paid alongside untaxed income (rental profits, dividends, foreign pensions), HMRC collects the tax via Self Assessment.

Personal Allowance interaction. The Personal Allowance in 2026/27 is £12,570. The full new State Pension is about £12,547.60 a year - just £22.40 below the Personal Allowance. In practice this means a pensioner whose only income is the State Pension pays no Income Tax. Add any private pension, rental income or earnings on top and the State Pension becomes the first £12,547.60 of taxable income, with private pension income filling the rest of the basic rate band up to £50,270.

The Personal Allowance freeze trap. The Personal Allowance has been frozen at £12,570 since 2021/22 and is currently scheduled to remain frozen through 2027/28. Meanwhile the triple lock has lifted the full new State Pension from £179.60 (2021/22) to £241.30 (2026/27) - a 34% increase. The full new State Pension is now 99.8% of the Personal Allowance. By 2027/28 or 2028/29 the State Pension will almost certainly cross the Personal Allowance, dragging every basic-rate pensioner into paying Income Tax even with no other income. This is the so-called "stealth tax" effect of frozen thresholds combined with triple-lock uprating.

Cross-references and modelling tools across the SalaryTax pension stack:

State Pension calculator - estimate your weekly and annual figure for any qualifying-years input.
Pension tax relief guide - private pensions, AA, MPAA, LSA / LSDBA.
Pension comparison guide - State Pension vs workplace vs SIPP side-by-side.
Pension contribution calculator - RAS, Net Pay or salary sacrifice modelling.
Pension annual allowance calculator - AA, taper, MPAA and carry forward.
Pension drawdown calculator - DC pot sustainability and SPA bridging.
Workplace pension auto-enrolment - eligibility, opt-out and re-enrolment.
How UK tax works - canonical UK tax primer covering PAYE and personal allowances.
UK tax glossary A-Z - definitions of NI classes, LEL, SPT and other terms used on this page.
Tax relief guide - the wider survey of UK personal tax reliefs.
High earner tax planning checklist - includes pension and State Pension touchpoints.
Tax year-end checklist - 5 April deadlines including Class 3 voluntary contributions.

Frequently asked questions

What is the new State Pension full rate for 2026/27?: The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week from 6 April 2026, equivalent to about £12,547.60 a year. This figure was confirmed by the DWP in the "Proposed benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027" publication and reflects the triple-lock uprating from the £230.25 a week 2025/26 figure. To receive the full rate you need 35 qualifying National Insurance years on your record. Anyone with between 10 and 35 qualifying years receives a pro-rated amount calculated as (years / 35) x £241.30. Below 10 qualifying years no new State Pension is payable, though Pension Credit may be available separately.
How many NI qualifying years do I need for a full State Pension?: For the new State Pension (anyone reaching State Pension Age on or after 6 April 2016) the answer is 35 qualifying years for the full rate, with 10 qualifying years as the minimum to receive any new State Pension. For the old basic State Pension (anyone who reached State Pension Age before 6 April 2016) the answer was 30 qualifying years for the full rate of £184.90 a week. A "qualifying year" can be earned through employment paying Class 1 NI above the Lower Earnings Limit, through self-employed Class 2 contributions, through Class 3 voluntary contributions, or through NI credits granted automatically to carers, parents of children under 12 claiming Child Benefit, jobseekers and certain other claimant groups.
What is the triple lock?: The triple lock is the annual uprating rule for the State Pension. Each April the State Pension rises by the highest of three measures: CPI inflation in the September before the new tax year, average weekly earnings growth in May to July of the previous year, or a 2.5% floor. It has applied since 2010 and is the chief reason State Pension has grown materially faster than working-age benefits over the last 15 years. The triple lock was partly suspended in 2022/23 (only the 2.5% floor was used to neutralise the post-COVID earnings distortion) and fully restored from 2023/24. The 2026/27 uprate used CPI September 2025 as the binding measure.
What is the State Pension Age timetable?: State Pension Age (SPA) is 66 for anyone reaching SPA before 6 May 2026. From 6 May 2026 to 5 March 2028 SPA rises on a sliding scale from 66 to 67 - your exact SPA depends on your date of birth and is published on gov.uk/state-pension-age. The Pensions Act 2014 then schedules a further rise to 68 between 6 April 2044 and 5 April 2046, subject to a statutory review of life expectancy and other factors. Anyone affected by the rises should plan around their personal SPA, not the headline age - the gov.uk State Pension Age calculator returns your exact date.
How much does a voluntary Class 3 NI contribution cost in 2026/27?: The Class 3 voluntary NI rate for the 2026/27 tax year is £18.40 a week, equivalent to £956.80 for a full qualifying year (52 weeks x £18.40). This is the standard rate used to fill gaps from the most recent six tax years and from years 2006-07 onwards under the temporary extended window. One full Class 3 year adds approximately 1/35th of £241.30 = £6.89 a week or £358.28 a year to your eventual new State Pension. The cost is therefore recovered after roughly 2.7 years of receiving the pension (£956.80 / £358.28). Anyone expecting to live 3+ years beyond SPA almost always benefits from filling gaps, ignoring tax treatment and time value of money.
What is the extended deadline for filling NI gaps for 2006-2018?: Normally voluntary Class 3 contributions can be paid for the previous six tax years only. As part of a transitional easement after the introduction of the new State Pension, HMRC and DWP opened a window to fill gaps as far back as the 2006-07 tax year. This extended window was originally scheduled to close 5 April 2023, was extended to 5 April 2025 after demand overwhelmed the helpline, and was extended again to 5 April 2027 by the November 2024 Budget. From 6 April 2027 onwards the standard six-year rule resumes. Anyone with old gaps from 2006-07 to 2018-19 should check before April 2027 - missing the window means those years are permanently unfillable.
How does deferring the State Pension work?: If you reached State Pension Age on or after 6 April 2016 (new State Pension regime) and choose not to claim, your eventual weekly amount is uplifted by 1% for every 9 complete weeks of deferral. Across a full year of deferral that is approximately 5.8% uplift (52 weeks / 9 = 5.77 increments of 1%). The uplift compounds with the annual triple-lock increase, so deferring through a year of high CPI can be financially attractive. The break-even point is typically around 17 years post-SPA - deferring is worth it if you reasonably expect to live well past your mid-80s and you do not need the income now. Under the old basic State Pension the deferral rate was 1% per 5 weeks (10.4% a year) with an option to take a lump sum, both significantly more generous.
Is the State Pension taxable?: Yes. The State Pension is taxable as earned income for Income Tax purposes - it counts towards your Personal Allowance and into the basic, higher and additional-rate bands like any other pensions income or earnings. However, HMRC does not withhold tax at source from the State Pension itself. Instead, the tax owed is usually collected through PAYE on any private pension or part-time earnings (HMRC adjusts your tax code to deduct the State Pension liability from the other income source), or through Self Assessment if your tax affairs are complex. National Insurance is not payable on the State Pension and stops on all earnings once you reach SPA. Anyone with the State Pension as their only income (about £12,547.60 a year at the full new rate) sits just below the £12,570 Personal Allowance and pays no Income Tax in practice.
Do years on Child Benefit count as NI qualifying years?: Yes - this is one of the most important NI credit mechanisms and is widely overlooked. A parent (or guardian) claiming Child Benefit for a child under 12 automatically receives Class 3 NI credits for each week of the claim, even if they are not working. The credits count fully towards both new State Pension qualifying years and basic State Pension qualifying years. The catch: the credit attaches to whoever physically claims the Child Benefit, not the household. If a higher-earning parent claims while their lower-earning partner takes time out of work to provide childcare, the lower-earning parent loses years of NI credit they would have received. The fix is to transfer the Child Benefit claim to the lower earner or, if Child Benefit has been opted out of entirely to avoid HICBC, claim and opt out of payment only (the NI credits still accrue).
What is Carer’s Credit?: Carer's Credit is a Class 3 NI credit available to anyone caring for one or more disabled people for at least 20 hours a week. It does not pay any money - it just protects the carer's NI record by counting the period as qualifying years for State Pension. To claim, the cared-for person normally needs to be receiving a qualifying benefit (Attendance Allowance, the daily living component of PIP, the middle or higher rate care component of DLA, Constant Attendance Allowance, Armed Forces Independence Payment). If they do not, a "Care Certificate" signed by a health or social care professional can still establish eligibility. Carer's Credit fills the gap between informal caring (typically a working-age person stepping back from paid work) and the formal Carer's Allowance benefit, which itself also gives NI credits but has a strict earnings cap and means-test.
Can I inherit State Pension from my spouse?: Under the new State Pension the inheritance rules are deliberately narrower than under the old basic / additional State Pension. A surviving spouse or civil partner can inherit at most 50% of any "Protected Payment" their late partner had built up (the slice of their starting amount that exceeded the new State Pension full rate at 6 April 2016, arising from old SERPS / S2P accrual). They cannot inherit the basic new State Pension entitlement itself. Under the old system the surviving partner could use their spouse's NI record to top up their own basic State Pension entitlement and could inherit a portion of additional State Pension. People in mixed situations - one partner under the new regime, one under the old - are governed by complex transitional rules detailed in the DWP "State Pension if you're widowed" guidance.
What is Pension Credit?: Pension Credit is a separate, means-tested benefit that tops up the income of low-income pensioners to a minimum guarantee level (£227.10 a week single, £346.60 a week couple in 2026/27 - check gov.uk for confirmed figures). It is not paid automatically; about a third of eligible pensioners do not claim it. Receiving Pension Credit also unlocks several "passport" benefits including Housing Benefit, full Council Tax Reduction, a free TV licence for over-75s, Cold Weather Payment and the Warm Home Discount, which often exceed the headline Pension Credit award itself. It is distinct from the State Pension - you can receive both. Pensioners with less than 35 qualifying NI years receiving a pro-rated new State Pension are exactly the cohort most likely to benefit from claiming Pension Credit.

Verify the figures

All figures on this page were retrieved on 25 May 2026 from the following gov.uk sources:

New State Pension overview: gov.uk/new-state-pension
Basic State Pension overview: gov.uk/state-pension
Benefit and pension rates 2026/27: gov.uk benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027
Check State Pension forecast: gov.uk/check-state-pension
Voluntary National Insurance contributions (Class 3): gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions
State Pension Age timetable: gov.uk/state-pension-age
Deferring the State Pension: gov.uk/deferring-state-pension
National Insurance credits: gov.uk/national-insurance-credits
Carer's Credit: gov.uk/carers-credit
Pension Credit: gov.uk/pension-credit
Future Pension Centre: 0800 731 0181 (England, Wales, Scotland); 0800 587 0892 (NI).