State Pension Explained: How Much Will You Get and When?

The state pension is money the government pays you each week once you reach retirement age. How much you get depends on how many years you've paid National Insurance. For 2025/26, the full amount is £221.20 per week, which works out to £11,502.40 a year.

That's not a fortune, but for most people it forms the base layer of retirement income. Here's how the system works, what you need to qualify, and how to check where you stand.

How much is the state pension in 2025/26?

There are two versions, depending on when you reach state pension age:

Pension type	Who gets it	Weekly amount	Annual amount
New State Pension	Reached pension age on or after 6 April 2016	£221.20	£11,502.40
Basic State Pension	Reached pension age before 6 April 2016	Up to £169.50	Up to £8,814.00

If you're currently working and haven't retired yet, you'll almost certainly be on the new state pension. The basic state pension only applies to people who were already at retirement age before April 2016.

Your actual amount depends on your National Insurance record. You might get less than the full amount, or in some cases more if you built up entitlements under the old system. The only way to know your exact figure is to check your state pension forecast on GOV.UK.

When can you claim it?

The state pension age is 66 for both men and women in 2025.

That's going up:

• 67 by 2028 (the increase is being phased in between 2026 and 2028)
• 68 at some point after that, likely between 2044 and 2046, though the government keeps reviewing the timeline

You can check your personal state pension age using the GOV.UK calculator. If you were born after 5 April 1960, you'll need to wait until at least 66, possibly 67 or later.

How you qualify: the 35-year rule

To get the full new state pension, you need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions. To get anything at all, you need at least 10 qualifying years.

A qualifying year means you either:

• Worked and earned above the NI lower earnings limit (£6,396 in 2025/26) for that year
• Received National Insurance credits (for example, while claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, Carer's Allowance, or Child Benefit for a child under 12)
• Made voluntary NI contributions

Between 10 and 35 years, your pension is proportional. If you have 25 qualifying years out of 35, you'd get roughly 25/35ths of the full amount: about £158 per week.

Qualifying years	Approximate weekly pension	Approximate annual pension
35 (full)	£221.20	£11,502
30	£189.60	£9,859
25	£158.00	£8,216
20	£126.40	£6,573
15	£94.80	£4,930
10 (minimum)	£63.20	£3,287

Gaps in your record? You can fill them

Check your NI record on GOV.UK. It shows you which years count, which have gaps, and whether you can fill those gaps.

You can pay voluntary Class 3 NI contributions to fill missing years. The current rate is £17.45 per week (£907.40 per year). Whether it's worth paying depends on how many years you're short and how long you expect to receive the pension.

Rough maths: paying £907 for one extra qualifying year adds about £5.84 per week to your pension (1/35th of £221.20 = £6.32, but it can vary). That's about £303 per year. If you receive the pension for 20 years, that one year of voluntary contributions is worth around £6,000. Not a bad return on £907.

There's a deadline though. You can normally only fill gaps from the past six years. The government recently extended this for earlier years (back to 2006) but that extension won't last forever, so check sooner rather than later.

Deferring: should you delay claiming?

You don't have to claim the state pension as soon as you hit pension age. If you defer, your payments increase by 1% for every nine weeks you wait. That works out to about 5.8% per year.

In practice: if you defer the full new state pension for one year, your weekly payment goes from £221.20 to about £234 per week, for life.

Deferring makes sense if you're still working and don't need the income yet, and you're in good health with a reasonable expectation of a long retirement. If you need the money now or have health concerns, taking it straight away is usually the better choice.

Is the state pension taxed?

Yes. The state pension counts as taxable income. It uses up part of your personal allowance (£12,570 for 2025/26).

If the state pension is your only income, you won't pay tax on it because £11,502 is below the personal allowance. But if you have other income on top (a workplace pension, rental income, part-time work), the state pension gets added to the total and you'll pay tax on whatever exceeds £12,570.

HMRC adjusts your tax code automatically so the tax comes out of your other income sources. They don't deduct tax from the state pension payment itself.

Can you work while claiming the state pension?

Yes, with no limit on how much you can earn. The state pension isn't means-tested. Whether you earn nothing or £100,000 a year, you still get your full state pension.

The only difference is tax. If you work and receive the state pension, both sources count toward your total income for tax purposes.

You also stop paying National Insurance once you reach state pension age, even if you keep working. That's an automatic saving of 8% on earnings above £12,570.

Claiming from abroad

You can receive the UK state pension while living overseas. But there's a catch: your pension only increases each year (under the triple lock) if you live in the UK, the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or a country with a relevant social security agreement.

If you retire to, say, Australia or Canada, your pension is frozen at the rate it was when you left or when you first claimed. It doesn't go up with inflation. Over 10-20 years, that makes a big difference.

What to do now

1. Check your state pension forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension. It tells you your projected amount and pension age.
2. Check your NI record at gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record. Look for gaps you might be able to fill.
3. Don't rely on the state pension alone. £11,502 a year is below what most people need for a comfortable retirement. A workplace pension or private pension is important to top it up.

For a breakdown of how much of your salary goes to tax, NI, and pension contributions right now, try our salary calculator.