New State Pension pays £241.30 a week with 35 qualifying years

Correct as at 8 November 2026.

The full rate of the new State Pension is £241.30 a week, after the annual uprating of benefit and pension rates that took effect from 6 April.

Who gets the new State Pension?

The new State Pension applies to men born on or after 6 April 1951 and women born on or after 6 April 1953.

Ten qualifying years on a National Insurance record are needed to get any new State Pension at all, the Department for Work and Pensions said.

A qualifying year is one in which the person worked and paid National Insurance, received National Insurance credits, or paid voluntary contributions.

Credits can count, for example, for someone who was unemployed, ill, a parent or a carer, so a year without paid work can still qualify.

The pension is usually based on the person’s own record, although in some cases it can be inherited or increased through a spouse or civil partner.

How is the amount worked out?

The full rate depends on the number of qualifying years, and the department said a record that started after April 2016 needs 35 qualifying years to reach it.

Anyone whose record began before April 2016 may have been contracted out, which meant paying less into the State Pension and more into a workplace or private pension.

Those who were contracted out will usually need more than 35 qualifying years to get the full rate, according to the department.

Some people receive more than £241.30. Anyone who paid into the Additional State Pension before 2016 and would have got more under the old rules gets a “protected payment” on top.

Three factors can therefore make an individual amount differ from the headline figure: contracting out before 2016, the number of qualifying years, and Additional State Pension paid before 2016.

What does the full rate come to?

Over 52 weekly payments at the full rate, the new State Pension would total £12,547.60 a year.

The 2025/26 full rate was £230.25 a week, according to the House of Commons Library, so the current rate is £11.05 a week higher.

That 2025/26 figure was itself up from £221.20 in 2024/25, a rise of £9.05 a week.

How are annual increases set?

The new State Pension rises each year by whichever is highest of earnings growth, price growth measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), or 2.5%.

The earnings measure is the average percentage growth in wages in Great Britain, while the prices measure covers the UK.

A protected payment is treated differently and rises each year only in line with CPI.

In April 2025 the basic and new State Pensions were uprated by 4.1%, in line with growth in the Average Weekly Earnings index for May to July 2024.

Inflation-linked benefits rose by just 1.7% that year, in line with CPI in September 2024, the Commons Library said.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required to review benefit and State Pension levels every year.

Who is left out?

Men born before 6 April 1951 and women born before 6 April 1953 are outside the new scheme and instead receive the basic State Pension, and may also get Additional State Pension.

The full basic State Pension for 2025/26 was £176.45 a week, up from £169.50 in 2024/25, the Commons Library said, well below the new State Pension rate for the same year.

People with fewer than 10 qualifying years do not qualify for any new State Pension.

What was the rule before?

The old system was built on the basic State Pension, the core amount, with Additional State Pension on top for some people.

The new State Pension covers those reaching State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016, and the protected payment exists to preserve what some people had built up under the old rules.

The Commons Library noted that pension rates were raised by more than unemployment support after earnings links arrived in the 1970s and, more latterly, the triple lock.

How can someone check what they will get?

The department points people to the State Pension forecast, which shows how much they could get at State Pension age and their National Insurance record.

Anyone getting less than £241.30 a week might need more qualifying years to increase the amount, the department said.

The pension is not paid automatically. It has to be claimed, and claiming is allowed even while still working.

Claiming can also be delayed, or deferred, to increase the amount received.

Online claims need the invitation code from the letter about getting the State Pension. Anyone within 3 months of State Pension age who has no letter can request a code.

Those reaching State Pension age within 4 months can claim by phone to the Pension Service, which can also post out a paper claim form.

Claimants need dates of any marriage, civil partnership or divorce, dates spent living or working abroad, and bank or building society details.

When is the rate reviewed next?

The rate will be reviewed again under the same annual rule, with the increase set by the highest of earnings growth, CPI inflation or 2.5%.