How much is the State Pension?

The full rate this year

The new State Pension is for anyone reaching State Pension age from 6 April 2016 onwards. People who reached it before then get the basic State Pension, an older scheme this guide does not cover.

The 2026/27 rate is in force, set by the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2026. The rate is weekly, the pension is usually paid every four weeks, and 52 weeks make the year’s figure.

The full rate rises each April under the triple lock, the government’s policy. The guide below explains the triple lock and the change announced to it. A person’s own amount is set by their record.

The pension is not paid until it is claimed, and a claim can be put off for a higher amount. It can be claimed from State Pension age, which is 66 now and rises month by month for people born from 6 April 1960.

It is 67 for anyone born on or after 6 March 1961. For anyone born on or after 6 April 1978 the law sets it at 68.

What a qualifying year is

A qualifying year is a tax year in which a person paid, or was treated as paying, enough National Insurance. 10 are usually needed for any new State Pension, and 35 for the full rate on a record begun since 6 April 2016.

Years paying into the social security of a country in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or a country with an agreement can count towards the minimum. The amount is then worked out from the UK years alone.

GOV.UK lists the ways a year counts.

• Employed and earning at least £129 a week from one employer in 2026/27, the lower earnings limit, £6,708 over the year.
• Self-employed with profits of £7,105 or more, when Class 2 contributions are treated as paid, or paying Class 2 voluntarily on smaller profits.
• Getting National Insurance credits, for example while claiming a benefit for unemployment or illness, or receiving Child Benefit for a child under twelve.
• Paying voluntary contributions for the year.

Credits come automatically with some benefits and have to be claimed for others, such as caring for someone. A year without enough contributions and credits between them does not count.

How the amount is worked out

For a record that began on or after 6 April 2016, each qualifying year adds one 35th of the full rate. The years count until the full rate or State Pension age, whichever comes first.

A record with years before then starts from a starting amount, worked out at that date as the higher of what the old rules and the new rules would have given. Each qualifying year after it, before State Pension age, adds the same 35th, until the full rate is reached.

Anyone contracted out of the additional State Pension before then, often through a workplace scheme, had a deduction made from their starting amount. GOV.UK says such a person usually needs more than the full number of years to reach the full rate.

A starting amount above the full rate is kept. The excess is called a protected payment and rises with prices rather than under the triple lock.

The slider applies the simple rule for years since the new State Pension began. A starting amount, a contracted-out deduction or a protected payment changes the answer, and a forecast from the Department for Work and Pensions, online or by post, allows for them.

How to check your record

Two services on GOV.UK show a person’s own position. Both need a sign-in, and the first time may ask for proof of identity, such as a passport or driving licence.

• The “Check your State Pension forecast” service says how much a person could get, when it starts, and whether it can be increased. It cannot be used by someone already receiving or deferring their pension.
• The “Check your National Insurance record” service lists each year as full or not, the credits received, and the gaps. For a gap, it says whether voluntary contributions would fill it, what they would cost, and how the forecast would change.

A forecast for a record still being built shows two figures. One is what the record has earned so far, the other assumes contributions continue to State Pension age.

The Future Pension Centre, part of the Department for Work and Pensions, checks a record for a gap and says whether paying for it would change the pension. GOV.UK suggests that check before any payment, because voluntary contributions do not always increase the pension.

Filling a gap with voluntary contributions

A gap is filled by paying the missing weeks. Class 3 is the rate most people pay, £18.40 a week in 2026/27, so a whole year is £957.

Class 2 is £3.65 a week, £190 for a year. It is open to the self-employed with small profits and to a few listed occupations, such as examiners and unpaid ministers of religion.

A gap in one of the past 6 tax years can be filled. The deadline for each year is the fifth of April, 6 years after the tax year it belongs to. A later payment is allowed only in the limited cases the regulations set out, such as a delay HMRC accepts was not for want of care.

The rate charged depends on the year being filled and when it is paid. A Class 3 payment for either of the two previous tax years is at that year’s own rate, and Class 2 for the previous year only. Any earlier year is charged at this year’s rate.

GOV.UK says someone who was contracted out, or who will reach the full rate anyway from the years still to come, may gain nothing from a payment. The forecast and the record show which years would count.

What a bought year returns

One 35th of £241.30 is £6.89 a week, and 52 weeks of that is £359 a year, to the pound.

A year of Class 3 is 52 weeks at £18.40, £957. Divide the cost by the year’s pension and the pension repays it in about 2.7 years.

Over 20 years of pension the same year would have paid £7,170 in all, before the contribution is taken off, before tax, and at today’s rate. A year of Class 2 at £190 is repaid within the first year of pension.

The State Pension is taxed as income. Someone paying the basic rate of 20% in England, Wales or Northern Ireland keeps £287 of each added year. For them the Class 3 payment is repaid in about 3.3 years, and the 20 years return £5,736. Scotland’s bands differ.

• The return depends on living past the payback point, and on the years after it. The person’s own payments stop at death, and a surviving spouse or civil partner may inherit half of a protected payment, on conditions GOV.UK sets out.
• The payback assumes the year adds a whole share of the full rate. A year that completes a record may add less.
• The full rate rises in April, which raises what a bought year pays. This guide holds the rate still.
• The State Pension counts as income for Pension Credit, so a means-tested benefit can fall as the pension rises.
• The money paid now is not available for anything else, and the pension is paid only from State Pension age.
• A year bought that the record did not need, because later years would have reached the full rate anyway, adds nothing.

Whether a year is worth buying turns on the record, the years still to come and the person’s own health and plans. The figures here say only what a year costs and adds.

This guide informs. It does not advise anyone on whether to pay voluntary contributions or when to claim. How the State Pension works for a particular person turns on their own record, age and other income. MoneyHelper gives free, impartial guidance, and a regulated financial adviser, whose status can be checked on the FCA Register, can advise on your own case.

How Landfall handles it

Check your State Pension forecast, on gov.uk, says when your State Pension starts and how much it could be. Its amounts leave out inflation, so they are in today’s money, as the plan holds them. How the plan uses it, in more detail.

“National Insurance years so far” works the figure out from your record instead. The plan adds one year for each working year before the pension starts, then pays nothing below the minimum number, the full rate at the full number, and a share in between. A weekly amount typed into “Weekly forecast” replaces this calculation.