State pension with 10 qualifying years — the minimum threshold.
What state pension do you get with 10 qualifying NI years? See your estimated weekly and annual pension for 2025/26 and learn why 10 years is the crucial minimum.
Ten qualifying years is the absolute minimum you need to receive any new state pension at all. Below this threshold you get nothing — not a reduced amount, literally zero. For someone with exactly 10 years, the 2025/26 rate works out to roughly £65 per week, or around £3,400 a year. That is well below the poverty line, but it is infinitely more than 9 years would give you. If you are close to this threshold, it is worth checking whether you have any uncredited years — periods of caring, unemployment, or child benefit receipt can count. Voluntary Class 3 NI contributions cost around £824 per missing year and could be the difference between something and nothing.