State Pension increase calculator

By 3.9% on current figures, which takes the full new State Pension from £241.30 to £250.70 a week (DWP, 2026/27 rates). That rate is the growth in average earnings for May to July 2026, a first estimate (Office for National Statistics). The full basic State Pension, paid to people who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, moves from £184.90 to £192.10. Over 52 weeks the new-system rise comes to £488.80. The figure stays provisional for two reasons. Earnings can be revised in the release of 20 October 2026, and the triple lock takes September CPI instead if that turns out higher. Earnings growth is also the legal minimum for both flat rates (Social Security Administration Act 1992, section 150A). The rate is fixed only when the government announces its review.

Each yearly uprating multiplies the weekly amount and rounds it. £241.30 × 1.039 gives £250.71, and a full rate is rounded to the nearest 5p, as every Up-rating Order checked does, so £250.70. The same steps reproduce April 2026, when 4.8% took £230.25 to £241.30 (Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2026). Both cases appear with the other checked results.

A personal amount below that level is rounded to the penny instead, which is this tool's choice: the Orders state no rounding for it. A reduced award of £200.00 becomes £207.80.

The triple lock raises the new and basic State Pension by the highest of three figures. It is government policy for this Parliament, restated in Budget 2025, not a rule written into law.

• Average earnings growth: total pay, as a three-month average from May to July compared with a year earlier. The ONS first estimate for 2026 is 3.9%, and the release of 20 October 2026 can revise it.
• Prices: the Consumer Prices Index for September, known as September CPI, which ONS publishes on 21 October 2026. The latest CPI when these figures were checked on 5 October 2026 was 3.1% (ONS).
• A floor of 2.5%, which applies only when both other figures fall below it.

Only the earnings leg is law. Section 150A requires the full new and basic rates to rise by at least the growth in earnings, so 3.9% is the minimum unless the estimate is revised. Whether prices or the floor give more is a yearly decision.

At the floor the maximum new award would reach only £247.35 a week. The calculator starts from 3.9% and marks its result provisional. Typing September CPI or the announced rate turns the status into your own figure.

Some State Pension amounts rise by CPI alone, whatever happens to earnings. In April 2026 they gained 3.8%, against 4.8% for the flat rates (Up-rating Order 2026).

• Protected payment: in the new system, the part of a starting amount, worked out at 6 April 2016, that was above the maximum new award. It is paid on top.
• Additional State Pension: the earnings-related top-up of the old system, built up in SERPS (the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme) and its successor, the State Second Pension.
• Increments: extra weekly pension earned under the old system by deferral, which means putting off the claim after reaching State Pension age.
• Graduated Retirement Benefit: a small amount from an older contribution scheme, uprated the same way.

The calculator keeps the two kinds apart. A top-rate new pension with a £20.00 protected payment becomes £271.32 a week: £250.70 at the flat-rate increase and £20.62 by CPI of 3.1%. The whole amount therefore rises by 3.83%, a little less than the flat rate.

Additional pension can also pass to a widow, widower or surviving civil partner, partly or in full. An inherited State Pension estimate works out that share before any increase.

The rate for April is settled in the autumn before and written into law in the spring. Each step depends on the one before.

1. Mid-September: ONS publishes the summer earnings figure, then a possible revision on 20 October 2026.
2. 21 October 2026: ONS publishes September CPI.
3. Autumn: the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reviews the rates, and the government normally announces them around the Autumn Budget.
4. Around March: Parliament approves the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order, which fixes every weekly amount.
5. 12 April 2027: the new rates apply from this week, the one beginning with the first Monday of the 2027/28 tax year (section 150A).

Most pensioners receive a four-weekly payment in arrears. The first payment after the change can therefore still cover a few weeks at the old rate, and the next one is wholly at the new rate.

Yes, once your taxable income for the year passes the personal allowance of £12,570, and from 2027/28 a maximum new award does that on its own. This pension is taxable but paid gross, with no income tax taken off (HMRC).

The allowance stays at £12,570 until 5 April 2031 (Finance Act 2026, section 10). These frozen thresholds mean every uprating pulls more pensioners over the line.

HMRC taxes the State Pension received in a tax year, so the year of a change counts 1 week at the old rate and 51 at the new one. Its own example, £160.00 a week before April and £170.00 after, gives £8,830.00. For 2027/28 at 3.9%, a maximum award gives £13,027.00, which is £457.00 over the allowance.

At the basic rate of 20%, that excess costs £91.40 a year. Any increase above about 0.2% would cross the line. In 2026/27, 52 weeks at the full rate come to £12,547.60, still £22.40 inside the allowance.

Where it is the only income, there is no tax code to collect through. HMRC then sends a Simple Assessment, a letter that shows the tax due and the date to pay it.

With other income, tax on the State Pension is collected through PAYE rather than by letter. HMRC lowers the tax code on a workplace pension, a private pension or a salary by the State Pension expected for the year.

With £10,000 from a private pension, the uprating takes yearly income tax from £1,995.52 to £2,091.40. The extra £95.88 is 20% of the yearly rise. With a £40,000 salary, total income passes £50,270, so the rise is taxed at 40% and costs £191.76 more.

Anyone who already sends a Self Assessment return, for rental profit or self-employment, reports the State Pension on it instead. Earnings from a job below State Pension age also carry National Insurance; the take-home pay estimate covers that side.

Scottish taxpayers pay the Scottish rate of Income Tax, which starts at 19%. In the same private pension case their tax for 2027/28 is £2,051.73 instead of £2,091.40.

The main rates for 2027/28 are not law yet, and neither the Scottish nor the Welsh rates are set. The calculator assumes 20%, 40% and 45%, with the Scottish bands of 2026/27. Marriage Allowance, which moves part of an unused allowance between spouses or civil partners, is left out.

The large figure is the weekly State Pension from 12 April 2027, the unit in which DWP sets every rate. The rows then turn it into a year and into tax.

• Increase over 52 weeks: the weekly rise times 52, a plain year at the new rate.
• State Pension taxed in 2027/28: 1 week at today's rate plus 51 at the new one, as HMRC counts it.
• Above the allowance: whether the State Pension alone passes the personal allowance, before any other income.
• Income tax: charged on State Pension plus other income, for 52 weeks at today's rate and for the next tax year.
• Status: provisional while the rate is the earnings estimate, your own once either rate is changed.

An award below the full rate reflects fewer qualifying years on the National Insurance record. The new system's maximum needs 35, and at least 10 give any pension. A State Pension age estimate shows when payments begin.

No state pension increase calculator can confirm the April rate before the government announces it. Pension Credit, life abroad, deferral lump sums, savings interest and dividends are not modelled. Pensioners living in some countries outside the UK receive no yearly increase at all.