The State Pension is the one benefit almost everyone reading this site receives or will, and its rules are less well known than its name. It is not paid automatically. The amount depends on a National Insurance record that can be checked and improved. And the age at which it starts is moving this year. This page carries the rules that decide those three things, and links to the pages that go further.
Who gets the new State Pension
You can claim the new State Pension when you reach State Pension age if you are a man born on or after 6 April 1951 or a woman born on or after 6 April 1953. If you were born before those dates, the basic State Pension applies instead, possibly with Additional State Pension on top (GOV.UK, The new State Pension: eligibility, checked 1 November 2026).
You need 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record to get any new State Pension. A qualifying year is one in which you were working and paying National Insurance, getting National Insurance credits, for example while unemployed, ill, or a parent or carer, or paying voluntary contributions. GOV.UK says you might also qualify through years lived or worked abroad, or reduced-rate contributions paid by married women.
How much
The full rate of the new State Pension is £241.30 a week (GOV.UK, The new State Pension: what you'll get, checked 1 November 2026). Your amount can differ from that depending on whether you were contracted out before 2016, how many qualifying years you have, and whether you paid into the Additional State Pension before 2016.
For 2027/28, HM Treasury says the full new State Pension will be £13,036.40 a year from 6 April 2027 (HM Treasury, Pension Tax Allowance explainer, checked 1 November 2026). DWP sets the weekly rate, and had not published its 2027/28 rates when we checked.
The number of years that matters depends on when your record began. GOV.UK says that if your National Insurance record started after April 2016 you need 35 qualifying years for the full rate, and that if you were contracted out before 2016 you will usually need more than 35. Each qualifying year added after 6 April 2016 increases the amount, up to the full rate.
If your forecast shows less than the full rate, there are three ways to add years: working and paying National Insurance until State Pension age, getting National Insurance credits, and paying voluntary contributions to fill gaps. Our voluntary National Insurance page covers the last of those, including the six-year limit and the reasons a bought year is sometimes worth nothing. Our Carer’s Credit page covers the credit that fills the gap for nothing if you have been caring.
When: State Pension age
State Pension age is the earliest age you can start receiving the State Pension, and GOV.UK says it is under review and may change. The government’s 2023 review confirmed the legislated timetable for now: State Pension age rises from 66 to 67 between April 2026 and April 2028.
And from 67 to 68 later, with the rise to 68 left for a further review (GOV.UK, State Pension age review, checked 1 November 2026).
The date for you depends on your date of birth, and GOV.UK’s State Pension age checker gives it, along with your Pension Credit qualifying age and the age for free bus travel. Anyone born around 1960 and 1961 sits inside the transition and should check rather than assume 66.
Claiming it
GOV.UK is direct: you will not get your new State Pension automatically, you have to claim it (GOV.UK, The new State Pension: how to claim, checked 1 November 2026). A letter about getting your State Pension arrives with an invitation code for the online claim. If it has not come and you are within three months of your State Pension age, you can request a code.
You can claim by phone if you reach State Pension age in the next four months, and by post by asking the Pension Service for a form. Our how to claim guide covers the exact numbers, hours and postal address for each route.
You will need the date of your most recent marriage, civil partnership or divorce, the dates of any time spent living or working abroad, your bank details, and any social security numbers you hold for foreign state pension schemes. Our State Pension contact page has the numbers, including the separate line for claims.
Claiming later is allowed. GOV.UK’s guidance on deferring sets out how the amount increases if you delay and what it means for other benefits (GOV.UK, Defer (delay) your State Pension, checked 1 November 2026), and it is a decision worth reading about before making.
When it is paid
After you claim, a letter tells you about your payments. The new State Pension is usually paid every four weeks, and the day depends on the last two digits of your National Insurance number (GOV.UK, The new State Pension: when you're paid, checked 1 November 2026). Your first payment will be no later than five weeks after the date you choose to start.
And you may get part of a payment before the first full one.
| Last two digits of your National Insurance number | Payment day |
|---|---|
| 00 to 19 | Monday |
| 20 to 39 | Tuesday |
| 40 to 59 | Wednesday |
| 60 to 79 | Thursday |
| 80 to 99 | Friday |
A payment due on a bank holiday may come earlier. Our benefit payment dates page has every date that moves through 2027, Christmas included.
If you are widowed
You may be able to inherit an extra payment on top of your own new State Pension if you are widowed, though not if you remarry or form a new civil partnership before State Pension age (GOV.UK, The new State Pension, checked 1 November 2026). What can be inherited depends on when the marriage began and when your partner reached pension age or died.
GOV.UK’s examples are part of a partner’s Additional State Pension where the marriage began before 6 April 2016 and the partner either reached pension age before that date or died before it but would have reached pension age after it, and half of a partner’s protected payment where they reached pension age and died on or after that date. The Pension Service works this out when told of the death; our when someone dies page covers who to tell.
The State Pension and Pension Credit
A State Pension below the full rate, or a full one with little else, may be topped up. Pension Credit raises a single person’s weekly income to £238 and a couple’s to £363.25 for 2026/27, and it is the gateway to Housing Benefit, a free TV licence at 75, Cold Weather Payments and help with health costs.
Our Pension Credit guide and the gap estimator show whether it is worth claiming. Putting off the State Pension to earn more of it is on our deferring page, which also explains why a deferred pension still counts for Pension Credit.
Managing it for someone else
If a parent can no longer manage their own State Pension, the DWP’s appointee arrangement lets a relative deal with it. It is free and covers benefits only. Our appointee page explains how it is granted and what it does not reach.
If the question is whether the State Pension and everything else will be enough, our is my pension on track page names the four documents that answer it, and states no projection of its own. Our forecast page explains the 2016 starting amount, the claim refused or blocked page the three routes to claim, Universal Credit at pension age the handover to Pension Credit, and overpayments and deductions what the DWP can take back. The State Pension is paid without tax deducted but counts against the personal allowance, and our tax on pensions page covers what that does to a private pension drawn alongside it.