Pillar guide · State pension

State pension — the complete UK guide.

How much you'll get, what counts as a qualifying year, how to check your NI record, when filling gaps is the best investment in the UK, and the bits nobody tells you about contracting out and tax.

By Pension Bible editorial team·Last reviewed 9 April 2026·15 min read

The new state pension — what you actually get

The UK state pension was overhauled in April 2016. If you reached state pension age on or after 6 April 2016, you're on the "new state pension" system. The full rate in 2025/26 is £221.20 per week, which works out to £11,502.40 per year.

That figure is increased each April under the "triple lock" — a political commitment to raise the state pension by whichever is highest: earnings growth, price inflation (CPI), or 2.5%. The triple lock has been one of the most generous uprating mechanisms in UK public policy, and it has significantly increased the real value of the state pension over the last decade. Whether it will survive indefinitely is a matter of political debate, but it has been maintained by every government since its introduction in 2010.

To put the amount in context: £11,502 per year is roughly £958 per month. That's below the PLSA's "minimum" retirement living standard of around £14,400/year for a single person. The state pension was never designed to be your sole retirement income — it's a foundation that you build on with workplace and private pensions. But it's a remarkably valuable foundation. The equivalent "annuity value" of the full state pension — what you'd need to save in a private pension to buy the same guaranteed, inflation-linked income for life — is approximately £250,000-£300,000. It's the largest single financial asset most UK adults will ever have.

Qualifying years — how you build your entitlement

You build your state pension entitlement by accumulating "qualifying years" of National Insurance (NI) contributions. You need 35 qualifying years for the full new state pension and at least 10 to receive any state pension at all.

A qualifying year is a tax year (6 April to 5 April) in which you have paid or been credited with enough National Insurance. There are several ways to get a qualifying year:

Employment. If you're employed and earn above the Lower Earnings Limit (£6,396/year in 2025/26), your employer deducts Class 1 NI from your pay and you automatically get a qualifying year. You don't need to do anything.

Self-employment. If you're self-employed, you pay Class 2 NI contributions (£3.45/week in 2025/26) through self-assessment. Each year of Class 2 contributions counts as a qualifying year. Class 2 contributions are significantly cheaper than voluntary Class 3 contributions and achieve the same result for state pension purposes — this makes them one of the best-value contributions in the UK tax system.

National Insurance credits. You can receive NI credits (which count as qualifying years) without paying anything if you're claiming certain benefits. The main ones are: Universal Credit, Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Carer's Allowance, and Child Benefit for a child under 12. The Child Benefit credit is particularly important — many parents (usually mothers) who take time out of employment to care for children receive NI credits through Child Benefit that protect their state pension entitlement. You must actually claim Child Benefit to get the credits, even if you opt out of receiving the payments due to the High Income Child Benefit Charge.

Voluntary contributions. If you have gaps in your NI record — years where you weren't employed, self-employed, or receiving credits — you can fill them by paying voluntary Class 3 contributions. This is covered in detail below.

The 35-year requirement means that most people who work (or receive credits) from their early 20s to their mid-60s will comfortably accumulate enough qualifying years. The people most at risk of shortfalls are those who spent significant periods abroad, those who were self-employed but didn't file tax returns, and those who took extended career breaks without claiming relevant benefits.

State pension age — the current schedule

State pension age is the age at which you can start claiming your state pension. It's not the same as the minimum age for accessing private pensions (currently 55, rising to 57 in 2028).

The current schedule:

The increase to 68 was originally scheduled for 2044-2046, then accelerated to 2037-2039 by the Conservatives in 2017, then deferred again pending review. As of 2026, the government has not confirmed a specific timetable for the increase to 68. The most recent review recommended not confirming a date until the next scheduled review.

You can check your personal state pension age using the government's calculator or our state pension age calculator, which also shows how it interacts with your private pension access age.

Checking your NI record

Before making any decisions about voluntary contributions, you need to know where you stand. The government provides a free online service to check your NI record and get a state pension forecast.

Step 1: Check your NI record at gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record. You'll need a Government Gateway account (or you can create one). This shows every tax year since you turned 16, whether it's a full qualifying year, a partial year, or a gap.

Step 2: Get your state pension forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension. This tells you how much state pension you're currently on track to receive, how many qualifying years you have, and how many more you could add.

Pay attention to the detail. Your forecast will show your "starting amount" (calculated at April 2016 based on your pre-2016 NI record), any qualifying years added since 2016, and any deductions (for contracting out — see below). The difference between your current forecast and the full state pension tells you how many gaps are worth filling.

Use our state pension forecast calculator below to model different scenarios — including the impact of filling specific gaps.

Filling gaps — the best financial deal in the UK

If your NI record has gaps and you're not yet on track for the full state pension, paying voluntary Class 3 contributions to fill those gaps is one of the most attractive financial propositions available to UK residents.

The numbers in 2025/26:

• Cost to fill one year: £907.40 (Class 3 voluntary contributions at £17.45/week)
• Extra annual pension per year filled: approximately £329 (£6.33/week)
• Payback period: £907.40 / £329 = 2.76 years

In other words, if you pay £907.40 to fill a gap, you'll receive an extra £329 every year for the rest of your life from state pension age. After less than three years of receiving the higher pension, you've recouped the cost. Everything after that is pure profit — guaranteed by the government, inflation-protected by the triple lock, and payable for life.

No savings account, no investment, and no annuity comes close to this return. If you're eligible to fill gaps, it should be one of your highest financial priorities.

Important rules on filling gaps:

• You can usually only fill gaps from the last six tax years. There was a temporary extension allowing people to fill gaps back to April 2006, but this window closed on 5 April 2025. From April 2025 onwards, the normal six-year limit applies.
• Filling a gap only increases your pension if you have fewer than 35 qualifying years. If you already have 35 (or will reach 35 through future employment before state pension age), additional years don't help — there's no benefit above 35.
• The cost of filling older years may differ from the current rate, as HMRC charges the rate that applied in the year you're filling (though for Class 3, this is usually similar).
• If you're self-employed and can pay Class 2 contributions instead (£3.45/week = £179.40/year), do that — it's far cheaper for the same qualifying year.

Our NI gap top-up calculator lets you model the exact cost and benefit of filling specific gaps in your record.

Contracted out — the deduction nobody expects

If you were a member of a workplace pension scheme that was "contracted out" of the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) or the State Second Pension (S2P) before April 2016, your new state pension will include a deduction called the "Contracted-Out Pension Equivalent" (COPE).

Here's what happened: before 2016, the UK had a two-tier state pension — the basic state pension plus an earnings-related top-up (SERPS/S2P). Some workplace pension schemes (particularly defined benefit schemes in the public and private sector) were "contracted out" of the earnings-related part. In exchange, both the employer and employee paid lower National Insurance contributions. The deal was that the workplace scheme would provide a pension at least equivalent to what SERPS/S2P would have paid.

When the new state pension was introduced in 2016, the government calculated everyone's "starting amount" by taking the higher of what they would have received under the old system or the new system — but applied a deduction for any periods of contracting out. The logic: you already have a workplace pension that was supposed to replace the earnings-related part, so you don't get it twice.

The COPE deduction shows up on your state pension forecast as a reduction from the full rate. It can be substantial — some people who were contracted out for 20+ years see deductions of £50-£80 per week, meaning their state pension is significantly below the full £221.20.

What you can do about it:

• You cannot remove the COPE deduction — it reflects NI contributions that were genuinely lower during your contracted-out years.
• You may be able to build up additional qualifying years after 2016 to offset some of the deduction, up to the full new state pension rate.
• Your contracted-out workplace pension should provide the income that the COPE deduction represents — check with your old employer or pension scheme what you're entitled to.

The contracted-out deduction is the single most common reason people's state pension forecasts are lower than they expect. If your forecast shows less than the full rate, check whether contracting out is the cause before assuming you have NI gaps to fill.

State pension and tax

The state pension is taxable income. This surprises many people. It is paid gross — no tax is deducted at source — but it counts towards your total taxable income for the year.

In 2025/26, the personal allowance is £12,570. The full new state pension is £11,502.40. That leaves only £1,067.60 of personal allowance for other income before you start paying tax. If you have any other income in retirement — a workplace pension, rental income, part-time work, interest on savings — you'll likely exceed the personal allowance and pay income tax.

This creates a common retirement tax trap: people assume their state pension is "free" and don't account for the tax on their private pension withdrawals above the remaining personal allowance. A £5,000 private pension withdrawal on top of the full state pension would put you £3,932.40 into the basic-rate tax band, costing £786.48 in income tax.

How the tax is collected: HMRC can't deduct tax from the state pension directly (it's paid by DWP, not an employer). Instead, they adjust the tax code on your other income sources. If you have a private pension in drawdown, the drawdown provider will apply a tax code that collects the tax due on both the state pension and the drawdown income. If you have no other income source with a tax code, HMRC will send you a Simple Assessment bill.

Our income tax in retirement calculator shows exactly how the state pension interacts with other retirement income for tax purposes.

Deferring your state pension

You don't have to claim your state pension at state pension age. You can defer — delay claiming — and receive a higher amount when you eventually start.

The enhancement rate for the new state pension is approximately 1% for every 9 weeks you defer. That works out to roughly 5.8% per year of deferral. If you defer for one year, your state pension increases from £11,502 to approximately £12,169 — an extra £667/year for life.

Whether deferral makes sense depends on your circumstances:

Deferral makes sense if:

• You're still working and would pay tax on the state pension (deferring avoids the tax until you stop working)
• You have other income to live on and don't need the state pension yet
• You're in good health and expect to live well beyond average life expectancy (the longer you live, the more the enhanced amount pays off)

Deferral doesn't make sense if:

• You need the income now
• You have health conditions that reduce your life expectancy — the breakeven point is roughly 17-18 years, so you need to survive that long after deferral ends to come out ahead
• You would invest the state pension rather than spend it, and expect investment returns above 5.8% per year

The old state pension (for those who reached state pension age before 6 April 2016) had a more generous deferral rate and also allowed you to take the deferred amount as a lump sum. The new state pension only offers the enhanced weekly rate — no lump sum option.

State pension as your retirement foundation

The state pension is the bedrock of most UK retirement plans, but it's not enough on its own. Here's how it fits into the bigger picture:

The "minimum" standard covers basic needs — food, housing, transport — but with little room for holidays, eating out, or unexpected costs. Most people aspire to at least the "moderate" level, which means building a private pension pot of roughly £250,000-£350,000 (enough to generate £15,000-£20,000/year through drawdown or annuity purchase, on top of the state pension).

The practical takeaway: know your state pension forecast, maximise it by filling NI gaps where it makes sense, and then focus your planning on the gap between the state pension and the retirement income you actually want. Our retirement planning guide covers the full framework.

Married couples and state pension

The new state pension is based on your own individual NI record. There is no automatic entitlement based on your spouse's or civil partner's contributions — a significant change from the old system, where a married person could claim a basic state pension based on their spouse's record.

However, there are some inherited rights:

If your spouse or civil partner dies and reached state pension age before 6 April 2016: You may be able to inherit some of their additional state pension (SERPS/S2P). The amount depends on when they reached state pension age and the rules in place at that time. Up to 50% of their SERPS entitlement can be inherited.

If your spouse or civil partner dies and reached state pension age on or after 6 April 2016: You may be able to inherit their "protected payment" — the amount of new state pension above the full rate that they had earned through pre-2016 contributions. You cannot inherit the basic part of their new state pension.

Divorce: Your NI record is your own and isn't affected by divorce. However, pension sharing orders can apply to private pensions. The state pension itself cannot be shared through a court order, but periods of marriage can sometimes be used to substitute for gaps in your own NI record — the rules are complex and worth checking with the Pension Service.

Practical planning for couples: Both partners should check their individual NI records and forecasts. If one partner has gaps (often the one who took time out for childcare), filling those gaps through voluntary contributions is usually the priority. Ensure the parent claiming Child Benefit is the one who needs the NI credits — or use form CF411A to transfer credits to the other parent if they're the one with the gap.

FAQ

How much is the full state pension in 2025/26? The full new state pension is £221.20 per week, which is £11,502.40 per year. This is the maximum — you receive it if you have 35 or more qualifying years and no contracting-out deductions. Your actual amount depends on your NI record and can be checked at gov.uk/check-state-pension.

How many years of NI do I need for the full state pension? 35 qualifying years for the full amount. You need at least 10 qualifying years to receive any state pension. Between 10 and 35, you receive a proportional amount — roughly 1/35th of the full rate for each qualifying year.

Is it worth paying voluntary NI contributions? If you have fewer than 35 qualifying years and gaps you can fill, almost always yes. Paying £907.40 (Class 3 rate for 2025/26) buys you approximately £329 of extra annual pension for life. The payback period is under three years. After that, every year of state pension payments is pure return. Use our NI gap top-up calculator to check your specific situation.

What is the contracted-out deduction? If you were a member of a workplace pension that was "contracted out" of SERPS or S2P before April 2016, your new state pension includes a deduction reflecting the lower NI contributions you paid during those years. Your workplace pension scheme should provide the equivalent income. The deduction can be significant — £50-£80/week for people contracted out for many years.

Can I get state pension if I've lived abroad? You can claim UK state pension from abroad if you have enough qualifying years. However, the annual triple-lock increase only applies if you live in certain countries (the EEA, Switzerland, and countries with a reciprocal social security agreement). If you retire to a country without an agreement (including Australia and Canada), your state pension is frozen at the rate when you left — it never increases. This is a significant consideration for anyone planning to retire abroad.

When should I claim my state pension? You can claim from state pension age. There's no benefit to waiting unless you're still working and would pay tax on it, or you can afford to defer for the 5.8%/year enhancement. The breakeven point on deferral is roughly 17-18 years — if you defer for one year and claim at 67, you need to live to about 84-85 to come out ahead. Check your forecast with our state pension forecast calculator.

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Pension Bible is an editorial publication, not a financial adviser. The information in this guide is general guidance based on publicly available data. For personal recommendations about your specific pension, speak to an FCA-regulated financial adviser. You can find one through Unbiased or VouchedFor.