How much is the State Pension?

The full new State Pension for 2026/27 is £12,547 per year, which is equivalent to £241.30 a week. The basic State Pension is £9,614.80 per year, equivalent to £184.90 per week.

When will I get my State Pension?

You'll receive the State Pension once you reach your State Pension age. For people born before 5 April 1960, their State Pension age is 66. For everyone born after this date, their State Pension age is increasing to 67 and will eventually increase to 68.

How much is the State Pension for a couple?

There's no longer a special State Pension arrangement for married couples. Each person will receive their own State Pension entitlement individually.

How much State Pension will I get if I have never worked?

If you've never worked, and therefore have never paid National Insurance contributions, you may still be eligible for a State Pension if you've received certain state benefits like Universal Credit or a carer's allowance.

What's the State Pension age?

The State Pension age depends on when you were born. Use our calculator above to find out what your State Pension age is.

How do I contact the Department for Work and Pensions about my State Pension?

You can contact the Pension Service to find out about your State Pension eligibility, claims and payments online, over the phone or by post. You may be able to claim backdated National Insurance credits for missing years to give your State Pension a boost.

When can I claim my State Pension?

You should receive a letter in the post three months ahead of reaching your State Pension age. You can also claim your State Pension over the phone up to four months before you reach State Pension age.

How to claim my State Pension?

You won't automatically receive your State Pension, you'll need to claim it online, by phone or by post.

What's the female State Pension age?

There's no longer a different State Pension age for men and women. Both will either reach the State Pension age at 66 or 67/68, depending on when they were born.

State Pension Age Calculator

Q: What's the State Pension?

The State Pension's a regular payment you receive from the government once you reach your State Pension age to help fund your life in retirement. To receive the full State Pension payment, you must have paid 35 years' worth of National Insurance contributions over your working life. To receive the minimum State Pension, you must have paid 10 years' worth of contributions. It should be noted that the State Pension is not enough to cover even the minimum lifestyle reported by the PLSA and most people are predicted to achieve the minimum standard through a combination of the State Pension and other private or workplace pensions.

Discover if you can retire before your State Pension age.

What's the State Pension?

The State Pension's a regular payment from the government, that you may receive once you reach the State Pension age, to help support you in retirement. The State Pension age is currently 66 and is rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028 for anyone born on or after 6 April 1960. Anyone born on or after 6 March 1961 has a State Pension age of 67. Under current law it will rise to 68 between 2044 and 2046, affecting those born on or after 6 April 1977.

You'll need to have 10 years of National Insurance Contributions to receive the minimum amount of State Pension and 35 'qualifying' years to receive the maximum amount.

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What if I want to retire before my State Pension age?

The age you can claim your State Pension has risen significantly since 2010 when the entitlement age was previously 60 for women and 65 for men.

A survey by PensionBee revealed that the 'ideal retirement age' for British workers is 60, despite this being some time before they'd be able to receive their State Pension. Meanwhile, the healthy life expectancy (the number of years you can expect to live in good health) for workers in the UK is 63, suggesting a potential pension gap for people who might want or need to retire earlier than their State Pension age. Someone who wants to retire before they can access their State Pension will need to provide their own income for the years in between. This is defined by PensionBee as the 'Pre-State Pension Gap' - the total amount of income someone would need to maintain a minimum, moderate or comfortable lifestyle in retirement before they're eligible to receive their State Pension.

Please see 'Standards of living in retirement' below for information about what each lifestyle means in practice.

How much will I need to save to combat the Pre-State Pension Gap?

For example, someone who wishes to retire at 60, assuming their State Pension age is 68 and they're retiring as a couple, would need to make provisions for the eight years before their State Pension entitlement. In order to live a moderate lifestyle, they'd need to have saved enough to generate an income of £181,600 to support them during this eight-year gap.

How much do I need to save in total for my retirement?

Looking at the average life expectancy for women (88) and men (85), a woman retiring at 60 in a couple would need a combined retirement income with her partner of £635,600 for her 28 years of expected retirement, to live a moderate lifestyle.

Assuming she would receive the full State Pension from 68, £250,952 of this total would come from her State Pension payments and the remaining £384,648 would need to be generated by the couple's workplace or personal pensions and other savings.

Calculate your State Pension age*

State Pension Age Calculator

Date of birth

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Your state pension age will be 68

You'll reach this on 1 January 2058

Calculate your 'Pre-State Pension Gap'

Pre-State Pension Gap Calculator

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Your pension pot is estimated to be worth £147,618 in today's money by your ideal retirement age 60.

As this pension pot may not be worth enough on its own to fund your whole retirement, including any "Pre-State Pension Gap", you are likely to need to make up the difference with additional contributions. Please see below the graph for the amounts you may need for a minimum, moderate or comfortable retirement both before your State Pension age and for your whole retirement.

Total pension pot size from now until ideal retirement age, in today’s money, after 2.5% a year inflation.

To retire eight years before your State Pension age you're estimated to need this income to fund your Pre-State Pension Gap:

Minimum

Moderate

Comfortable

Single

£111,200

£261,600

£363,200

Couple

All annual income requirements for a couple are halved to assume a 50/50 contribution in retirement and two lots of State Pension to meet these three living standards.

£180,000

£363,200

£501,600

Based on your estimated future pension pot, this is your anticipated shortfall to fund your whole retirement including your Pre-State Pension Gap. The calculations don't include any further growth if this pot were to remain invested and don't show income that you would receive from an annuity:

Minimum

Moderate

Comfortable

Single

£0

£456,573

£774,073

Couple

All annual income requirements for a couple are halved to assume a 50/50 contribution in retirement and two lots of State Pension to meet these three living standards.

£0

£560,764

£993,264

*Please note that for those born after 5 April 1960, the State Pension age will rise gradually each month, by one month at a time, until it reaches 67 in April 2028.

For example, if your birthday is between 6 June and 5 July 1960, you need to add three additional months to the calculation above, to give a State Pension age of 66 and three months (reached in October 2026).

If your birthday is between 6 September and 5 October 1960, you need to add six months giving a State Pension Age of 66 and six months (reached in March 2027).

Those born on or after 6 March 1961 will reach the new State Pension age of 67 on their 67th birthday.

Those born after 5 April 1977 will be impacted by the State Pension Age rise to 68.

As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice. The calculations on this page are based on our current understanding of legislation and various assumptions which may not be realised.

Are you on track for your dream retirement?

Here's what Pension UK's Retirement Living Standards say.

The Retirement Living Standards show how much you might need each year to enjoy a Minimum, Moderate or Comfortable standard of living in retirement. Explore the living standards below to see examples of everyday costs and what your retirement could look like.

Minimum

Single person: £13,900 per year

£1,158 per month

Couple: £22,500 per year

£1,875 per month

The Minimum standard covers the cost of all your basic needs with some left over for fun. A self-catering or half-board holiday in the UK, eating out once a month and an affordable leisure activity once a week.

Moderate

Single person: £32,700 per year

£2,725 per month

Couple: £45,400 per year

£3,783 per month

The Moderate standard provides more financial security and flexibility than the Minimum. An annual overseas holiday and a long weekend off-peak break in the UK, one takeaway a week and eating out a couple of times a month.

Comfortable

Single person: £45,400 per year

£3,783 per month

Couple: £62,700 per year

£5,225 per month

The Comfortable standard allows more spontaneity to the Moderate lifestyle including a few long weekends away in the UK, some day trips and a higher spending allowance on eating out and social activities.

Single person Couple

These figures assume you’re mortgage and rent-free.

State Pension FAQs

After looking at the most googled questions in the UK around the State Pension, these are the top 10 questions that Brits are searching:

Methodology
‍

The 'Pre-State Pension Gap''s defined as the total income someone needs to live a minimum, moderate or comfortable lifestyle in retirement before they're eligible to receive their State Pension.

All standards of living are based on Pensions UK’s (formerly the PLSA) Retirement Living Standards.

Users can discover their future State Pension age by inputting their date of birth.

To build the Pre-State Pension Gap Calculator, we created a formula that takes the user's gender, their current pension pot size, their annual contribution amount and their ideal retirement age. An assumed 5% annual investment growth, 0.7% annual pension fees and 2.5% inflation are then applied, so results are shown in today’s money.

The calculator generates the user's 'Pre-State Pension Gap' which is the total amount required to live a minimum, moderate and comfortable lifestyle in retirement, both on their own or within a couple, in the years before their State Pension entitlement.

All annual income requirements for a couple are halved to assume a 50/50 contribution in retirement and two lots of State Pension to meet these three living standards.

The calculator also highlights any shortfalls in the ability to meet the three living standards during this gap.

The 10 most googled questions were sourced from ahrefs (a keyword and backlink analysis tool) on 22 March 2023 and duplicated questions were omitted.

The example calculations are for demonstrative purposes and assume someone wanting a 'moderate' lifestyle in retirement and retiring in a couple, therefore requiring an income of £22,700 a year according to Pensions UK.

The average life expectancy for males is 85.

The average life expectancy for females is 88.

The healthy life expectancy for workers is 63.