State Pension

Your State Pension is based on how many qualifying years of National Insurance contributions or credits you have. A qualifying year is any tax year in which you paid or were credited with sufficient NI contributions.

You build up qualifying years by:

• Working and paying Class 1 (employed) or Class 2/4 (self-employed) NI contributions
• NI credits — awarded automatically if you receive certain benefits, including Universal Credit, Carer's Allowance, Child Benefit (for a child under 12), or are a foster carer
• Voluntary Class 3 NI contributions — you can pay these to fill gaps in your record

To receive the full new State Pension you need 35 qualifying years. To receive any pension, you need at least 10 years. Between 10 and 35 years, you receive a proportionate amount — for example, 25 qualifying years gives you 25/35 of the full pension (approximately £158/week).

Check your NI record and State Pension forecast by signing in to your personal tax account at gov.uk/check-state-pension.

The full new State Pension for 2024–25 is £221.20 per week (£11,502.40 per year). Your actual amount may be higher or lower depending on:

• Your number of qualifying years (fewer than 35 gives a reduced pension)
• Whether you have any qualifying years before April 2016 and how much you earned — for many people, their starting amount under the new system was calculated based on their old-style entitlement, which could be higher or lower
• Any contracting-out deductions from before April 2016, if you were in a contracted-out occupational or personal pension scheme

The Triple Lock is the government's commitment to increase the State Pension each April by the highest of: inflation (CPI), average earnings growth, or 2.5%. This has significantly increased the value of the State Pension over time. Its continuation beyond 2025 is subject to political decision-making.

If you have gaps in your NI record, you may be able to fill them by paying voluntary Class 3 NI contributions. This is usually worth doing if you can reach the 35-year threshold by topping up, as the cost is recovered relatively quickly through a higher State Pension.

In 2024–25, Class 3 voluntary NI contributions cost £17.45 per week (£907.40 per year), adding approximately £6.32 per week to your State Pension. The payback period is under three years.

You can usually pay for gaps in the past six years, and a government initiative (extended to April 2025) allowed people to pay for gaps going back to 2006.

Before paying: Check that the gap year is not already covered by credits you are entitled to but have not claimed, and check whether it will actually increase your pension — not all gap years lead to an increase if you already have 35 years elsewhere. Use the personal tax account or call the Future Pension Centre (0800 731 0175) to check.

The State Pension does not start automatically — you must claim it. You will receive a letter from the DWP about four months before you reach State Pension age with instructions on how to claim.

You can claim online at gov.uk/get-state-pension, by calling 0800 731 7898, or by post. Claims can be backdated by up to 12 months.

Deferring your pension: If you do not claim your State Pension when you reach State Pension age, it is automatically deferred and increases in value. Under the new rules, your pension grows by 1% for every 9 weeks you defer — approximately 5.8% per year. This can be beneficial if you are still working and do not need the income immediately, but be aware of the income tax implications.

Living abroad: You can claim the State Pension if you live abroad, but the pension is only uprated (increased each year) if you live in the UK, EEA, Switzerland, or a country with a social security agreement with the UK. In other countries, the pension is frozen at the rate it was when you left.