State Pension, explained simply
This State Pension rise affects millions
The full weekly rates rose by 4.8% on 6 April 2026. What the annual increase means for your own payments — and why the headline figure may not match them.
- The full new and basic State Pension rates both rose by 4.8%.
- DWP said more than 12 million pensioners were in scope of the rise.
- The published rate is a full standard rate, not a guaranteed amount.
Explained in brief
All terms A–Z →
Uprating
The annual change to State Pension rates, applied from the start of the tax year in April.
Triple Lock
The comparison of earnings growth, price inflation and 2.5% that sets the annual increase to the full rates.
Qualifying year
A tax year in which you paid or were credited enough National Insurance for it to count towards your pension.
Four-weekly cycle
The usual State Pension payment pattern. Thirteen periods in a year, not twelve calendar months.
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Putting off your State Pension changes the arithmetic
Waiting raises the weekly figure. How long it takes to make that back is the part worth working out first.
Tax and allowances
Nobody deducts tax from your State Pension. That is the catch.
The payment arrives gross. Where the tax actually gets collected surprises a lot of people in their first year.
Tax and allowances
The allowance that stays still while pensions rise
One number moves every April and the other has not moved since 2021. That is why more pensioners now file a tax return.
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The top-up a lot of pensioners never ask about
It is not paid automatically, it is not part of the State Pension, and take-up has been short of eligibility for years.
Income and saving
The part of a pension that rises by a different number
Applying the headline percentage to every line of an award gives the wrong answer. Here is which part follows which number.
Income and saving
Why some pensions abroad never go up
Two people who retired in the same year, on the same rate, can be hundreds of pounds apart a decade later.
Home and bills
Who gets help with the heating bill now
Most pensioner households get it again — but a higher-income minority sees it taken back through the tax system.
Home and bills
Why help with a council tax bill works differently where you live
There is no single UK-wide scheme, and the discounts sitting alongside it are easy to miss altogether.
Dates and checks
Three lines worth checking on your pension letter
Which system, which weekly entitlement, which extra elements. Everything else on the page is context.
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Working out the date your State Pension age falls
The date is fixed by your birthday — but the claim is a separate step, and it does not happen on its own.
Browse by section
State Pension
How the State Pension is worked out, what the annual uprating changes and why two people under the same rules can receive different amounts.
Tax and allowances
Pension income is taxable, but tax is rarely taken off before it is paid. What that means for allowances, tax codes and the letters that follow.
Income and saving
Additional pension elements, deferral, overseas rules and the other parts of a retirement income that do not follow the headline figure.
Home and bills
Help with heating, council tax and household costs in later life — who is eligible, who has to apply and where the rules differ locally.
Dates and checks
The dates that matter in a pension year, and the handful of checks worth doing on the paperwork that lands on the mat.