Nobody has to decide to defer: reach State Pension age, claim nothing, and it defers by itself. What the wait buys is a higher pension for life, and what it costs is every week’s payment not received. The trade is set out on GOV.UK with a worked example, and the rules around it, on benefits, tax and inheritance, are where the money is won or lost.
What deferring adds
GOV.UK says that if you do not claim your State Pension at State Pension age it automatically defers, and you do not have to do anything (GOV.UK, Defer (delay) your State Pension, checked 1 November 2026). For anyone who reached State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016, it says every 9 weeks deferred adds 1% to the weekly payment for life.
GOV.UK’s own figure is just under 5.8% for every 52 weeks, and you must defer at least 9 weeks to get anything. Its example uses the full new State Pension of £241.30 a week: defer for 52 weeks and you get an extra £13.99 a week (GOV.UK, Defer (delay) your State Pension, checked 1 November 2026). After you claim, GOV.UK says the extra usually increases each year with the Consumer Price Index.
What it costs, and how long to get it back
The cost is the pension not paid. GOV.UK’s own figure is that deferring the full new State Pension for 52 weeks forgoes £12,547.60, and it says it will take over 15 years to get that back, around a year longer for each further 52 weeks deferred (GOV.UK, Defer (delay) your State Pension, checked 1 November 2026).
Our own arithmetic on GOV.UK’s numbers: £13.99 a week is £727.48 a year, and £12,547.60 divided by £727.48 is about 17.2 years. That is this site’s calculation, not a GOV.UK figure, and it ignores tax and the annual uprating of both the pension and the extra. A person who defers at 66 is roughly 83 before the extra has repaid the year they gave up. Whether that trade is worth making depends on health, other income and tax, and is a decision for you, not a rule.
Who cannot build it up
Deferring while on certain benefits earns nothing. GOV.UK says you cannot build up extra State Pension during any period you get one of ten benefits, and the list below is its own (GOV.UK, Defer (delay) your State Pension: if you get benefits, checked 1 November 2026). Pension Credit and Carer’s Allowance are the two that reach people over State Pension age.
- Pension Credit
- Employment and Support Allowance (income-related)
- Universal Credit
- Carer’s Allowance
- Carer Support Payment
- Incapacity Benefit
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Widow’s Pension
- Widowed Parent’s Allowance
- Unemployability Supplement
A partner’s benefits count too, on a shorter list: GOV.UK says you cannot build up extra during any period your partner gets Pension Credit, Universal Credit or income-related ESA. A carer on Carer’s Allowance who defers to keep it gains nothing from the deferral, and our Carer’s Allowance page covers the overlap with the State Pension.
Pension Credit counts it anyway; Housing Benefit does not
Deferring does not make you poorer for Pension Credit. GOV.UK says that if you have deferred your State Pension, the amount of State Pension you would get is counted as income, and that you cannot build up extra amounts for deferring if you or your partner are getting Pension Credit (GOV.UK, Pension Credit: eligibility, checked 1 November 2026).
Housing Benefit at pension age works the other way. Its regulations treat unclaimed retirement pension income as possessed, but say that rule does not apply to a deferred Category A or B retirement pension or a deferred State Pension under the Pensions Act 2014 (Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006, regulation 41, checked 1 November 2026). Once the higher pension is in payment it is income for both, and GOV.UK says the increased payments could reduce Housing Benefit (GOV.UK, Defer (delay) your State Pension: if you get benefits, checked 1 November 2026). Our Pension Credit hub covers the means test.
Tax
The extra is pension income. GOV.UK says any extra payments you get from deferring could be taxed (GOV.UK, Defer (delay) your State Pension, checked 1 November 2026). A full new State Pension already uses almost all of the £12,570 personal allowance (GOV.UK, Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances: current rates and allowances, checked 1 November 2026), so the deferral increase on top is taxable for anyone with other income.
It is collected through a tax code on that other income, or by a Simple Assessment bill.
Our tax on pensions hub covers how the State Pension sits against the allowance. Working on past State Pension age is no bar to deferring, and GOV.UK says you usually stop paying National Insurance at State Pension age even if you are still working (GOV.UK, Stop paying National Insurance, checked 13 September 2026).
What a widow or widower cannot inherit
Under the old system a deferred pension could pass to a surviving spouse. Under the new one it usually cannot. GOV.UK says you may inherit a partner’s extra State Pension or lump sum if they died while deferring or after claiming it, and reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 (GOV.UK, The new State Pension, checked 1 November 2026).
The middle condition is the one that bites. A man reaching State Pension age this year who defers for three years and dies at 70 has given up three years of pension, and his widow inherits none of the extra it bought. For a couple, that belongs in the decision alongside the 17-year arithmetic above. Our State Pension hub covers what a widow can inherit of the pension itself.
Claiming after deferring
The extra arrives when you claim. GOV.UK says you can claim a one-off arrears payment of up to 52 weeks, and that if you defer for longer than 52 weeks you get the rest as extra State Pension (GOV.UK, Defer (delay) your State Pension, checked 1 November 2026).
Its example is 78 weeks deferred: a backdated payment of £12,547.60 for the first 52, and an extra £6.97 a week for the other 26.
So a lump sum under the new State Pension is only ever a year’s arrears, and it is a choice made at the claim rather than a separate scheme. GOV.UK says you will not get the new State Pension automatically and have to claim it (GOV.UK, The new State Pension: how to claim, checked 1 November 2026), and our State Pension hub covers how.
If you reached State Pension age before April 2016
The older rules are more generous. GOV.UK says that for someone who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, every 5 weeks deferred adds 1%, just under 10.4% a year, and that after 12 months you can instead take a lump sum with interest at 2% above base rate (GOV.UK, If you reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, checked 26 October 2026).
It adds that you can defer even if you have started getting the basic State Pension (GOV.UK, The basic State Pension: how much you get, checked 1 November 2026). Those rules belong to people now in their mid-seventies or older, and the inheritance rule above works in their favour: their spouse can inherit the extra.
Deferring a workplace or council pension is a different thing
Deferring the State Pension, covered above, is separate from a workplace or council pension you have stopped paying into. State Pension age comes from pensions legislation; a private pension’s access age comes from tax law, and each scheme sets its own terms. No primary source describes any link between deferring one and deferring the other.
The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is the largest example, covering council staff and many other public sector workers. If you leave your job before drawing your pension, and you have at least two years in the scheme, the LGPS holds it as a deferred benefit rather than paying it out (lgpsmember.org: Deferred benefits, checked 1 November 2026).
Normal Pension Age for an LGPS deferred benefit is your State Pension age, or 65 if that is higher; the LGPS Regulations define it by reference to the Pensions Act 1995’s state pension age table (LGPS Regulations 2013, Schedule 1, checked 15 September 2026). Paid at that age, the pension is not reduced.
You do not have to wait for Normal Pension Age, or leave it that long. The earliest age is 55 and the latest age it can be left unclaimed is 75. The government has announced that the earliest age will rise to 57 from 6 April 2028; the LGPS regulations do not yet say so (lgpsmember.org: Taking your deferred pension, checked 1 November 2026).
Taking it early reduces it; taking it late increases it, both under actuarial guidance issued by the Secretary of State (LGPS Regulations 2013, reg 30, checked 1 November 2026). For retirements from 1 August 2026, lgpsmember.org gives these reductions for early payment, and an employer can agree to waive them in whole or in part:
| Years taken early | Pension reduction |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5.0% |
| 3 | 13.9% |
| 5 | 21.5% |
| 8 | 31.1% |
| 10 | 36.6% |
(lgpsmember.org: Taking your pension, checked 15 September 2026)
A deferred LGPS pension is not left to lose value against prices. It is revalued each April using a Treasury order made under the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, which lgpsmember.org puts plainly: your deferred pension increases each April in line with the cost of living (LGPS Regulations 2013, Schedule 1 for the Treasury order and 6 April revaluation date, and lgpsmember.org for the wording, checked 1 November 2026).
Since April 2014 the LGPS has built pension on a career-average basis (lgpsmember.org: How your pension is worked out, checked 1 November 2026): 1/49th of your pensionable pay each year goes into your pension account (LGPS Regulations 2013, reg 24(5), checked 1 November 2026). Each extra year worked before leaving adds a further 1/49th, so a longer career in the scheme builds a larger deferred pension.
Service before April 2014 is calculated differently, on a final-salary basis: 1/60th of final pay for membership between 2008 and 2014, and 1/80th plus an automatic lump sum of three times the pension for membership before 2008 (lgpsmember.org: How your pension is worked out, checked 1 November 2026).
Some members built up benefits before April 2012 and were still in the LGPS between 2014 and 2022; they are protected by the McCloud underpin, which tops up their pension if the old final-salary scheme would have paid more (lgpsmember.org: Taking your pension, checked 15 September 2026).
Other defined benefit schemes hold a pension unclaimed on the same principle, but not to the same numbers. Early and late retirement factors for a scheme outside the public service are set by that scheme’s own rules, not by a single statutory table; the scheme administrator holds your own figures.
A defined contribution pension pot has no deferral in this sense at all. It is money invested in your name, with nothing to activate or leave dormant: you decide when to start drawing it, subject to the same private pension access age covered on our private pension access age page.
Before deciding
Three things to check, none of them advice. Whether you or a partner get any benefit on the list above, which stops the extra building. Whether Pension Credit is in reach, which counts the deferred pension as income anyway. And whether a spouse would be left with nothing from the years given up.
GOV.UK says that if you are over 50 you can book a free Pension Wise appointment about your pension options, and that Pension Wise does not cover the State Pension (GOV.UK, Personal pensions, checked 1 November 2026); so for the State Pension itself, and the Pension Service on the number on our contact page can confirm your own figures. The is my pension on track page names the forecast that shows what deferring would add for you.