There are two State Pension numbers, and ringing the wrong one costs a queue. One is for information and changes. The other is for making the claim, and it only helps if you are within four months of State Pension age. Below that age, neither is the right call. This page sets out which is which, what each will deal with, and the things that do not need a call at all.
Information and changes: 0800 731 0469
The Pension Service takes calls about your State Pension on 0800 731 0469, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, except public holidays. Relay UK users dial 18001 first, there is a British Sign Language video relay service for anyone on a computer, and the Welsh-language line is 0800 731 0453 (GOV.UK, Contact the Pension Service: get information about your State Pension, checked 1 November 2026).
GOV.UK lists what the line is for: your State Pension; Pension Credit; the over 80 pension; missing Cold Weather Payments and Christmas Bonus payments; getting extra payments from a deceased husband, wife or civil partner’s State Pension; making voluntary National Insurance contributions if you have already reached State Pension age; and becoming an appointee for someone claiming State Pension. The same number is the one to ring to report a change.
Claims: 0800 731 7898
Claiming has its own line. You can claim by phone on 0800 731 7898, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, except public holidays, if you reach State Pension age in the next four months; the Welsh-language claim line is 0800 731 7936 (GOV.UK, Contact the Pension Service: claim your State Pension, checked 1 November 2026). To claim by post, ring the Pension Service for a form.
The phone is not the only route, and GOV.UK’s guide says you can claim online with the invitation code from the letter about getting your State Pension. If the letter has not arrived and you are within three months of State Pension age, you can request a code (GOV.UK, The new State Pension: how to claim, checked 1 November 2026). Our State Pension guide covers what you need to have ready.
Under State Pension age: a different centre
The Pension Service deals with people who have reached State Pension age. GOV.UK says that if you have not reached it, questions about voluntary National Insurance contributions go to the Future Pensions Centre instead (GOV.UK, Contact the Pension Service: get information about your State Pension, checked 1 November 2026), and the online forecast service answers most questions about what you will get without a call.
Our voluntary National Insurance page covers what to check before ringing anyone.
What you have to report
If you get the State Pension or the over 80 pension, GOV.UK says you must report if you: move to a new address in the UK, telling them only after you have moved; move or intend to move abroad permanently.
Move into a residential care home, even temporarily, again only after you have moved in; start or stop getting a DWP benefit; change your bank details; marry or form a civil partnership; get divorced or have a civil partnership dissolved; are widowed or your civil partner dies; go to prison; or are held in legal custody (GOV.UK, Report changes of address, bank details or other circumstances, checked 1 November 2026).
Two of those carry consequences elsewhere. A move into a care home starts the financial assessment our paying for care hub describes. And being widowed can change your State Pension itself, because part of a late partner’s entitlement can be inherited; our when someone dies page covers who to tell, and Tell Us Once reaches the Pension Service.
Writing, and the other centres
Post goes to The Pension Service, Post Handling Site A, Wolverhampton WV98 1AF (GOV.UK, Contact the Pension Service: get information about your State Pension, checked 1 November 2026). Northern Ireland has its own Pension Centre, people living abroad use the International Pension Centre, and enquiries about someone else’s State Pension go through what GOV.UK calls the alternative enquiry service rather than the main line.
The call you may not need to make
The question most of these lines answer, what your State Pension will be, is answered without a queue by the forecast service on GOV.UK, which shows your figure and your National Insurance record. And the question of which day your pension arrives is set by your National Insurance number, not by a phone call.
If the call is only to check when your next State Pension payment arrives or how much it will be, GOV.UK’s Check your benefits and State Pension payments service shows that online, along with the last three months of payments. It needs a GOV.UK One Login, and appointees cannot use it (GOV.UK, Check your benefits and State Pension payments, checked 1 November 2026).
Our benefit payment dates page has the table.
It is not the same number as the other benefits
A household with a State Pension, Pension Credit and Attendance Allowance is dealing with three offices. Pension Credit claims are on 0800 99 1234 and its changes on 0800 731 0469, the same number as the State Pension line. Attendance Allowance is 0800 731 0122. Our Pension Credit contact page and Attendance Allowance contact page cover those.