economy and public finances · the national record
The state pension: what it costs, what it pays, what goes unclaimed
The State Pension is the single biggest item in the UK welfare bill, about 146.1 billion pounds in 2025 to 2026, going to about 13.2 million people, and DWP's own forecast has that reaching about 180.7 billion pounds by 2030 to 2031. This page sets out what the weekly rate is and how it has changed, who is on the old Basic State Pension against the new State Pension, and two figures that get much less attention: how much means tested Pension Credit goes unclaimed, and the pensioner poverty rate.
How to read this
The State Pension itself is not means tested: anyone with enough National Insurance contributions gets it regardless of other income or savings. Pension Credit is a separate, means tested top up benefit for pensioners on a low income, and is not the same thing as the State Pension. There are also two different State Pension systems paying different rates: the Basic State Pension (the old system, plus Additional State Pension on top for many recipients) for people who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, and the new State Pension for people who reached State Pension age on or after that date. The 13.2 million recipient figure is DWP's own Great Britain caseload and includes people living overseas who receive a UK State Pension, about 1.1 million of the total; it does not include Northern Ireland, which runs its own social security system.
Computed from DWP Outturn and forecast tables, Spring Forecast 2026; DWP Benefit and pension rates 2016/17 to 2026/27; DWP take up statistics FYE 2024; DWP Households Below Average Income FYE 2025 (Open Government Licence v3.0).
The national picture
13.2 million recipients, a 146.07 billion pound bill, heading to about 180.7 billion by 2030 to 2031
DWP's Spring Forecast 2026 puts State Pension spending, Great Britain, Annually Managed Expenditure, at about 146.07 billion pounds in 2025 to 2026, paid to a forecast average of 13.2 million recipients across the year. On the same forecast, that rises to about 180.7 billion pounds by 2030 to 2031, up 23.7 per cent in cash terms, as the recipient count rises to 13.7 million. About 1.09 million of the 2025 to 2026 total, 8.2 per cent, are people living outside the UK who receive a UK State Pension. State Pension is the single biggest line in DWP's own welfare forecast, bigger than Universal Credit and disability benefits combined.
The weekly rate
What the State Pension actually pays, and how that has changed
The full new State Pension rose from 155.65 pounds a week when it launched in April 2016 to 241.30 pounds a week from April 2026, up 55.0 per cent in cash terms over ten years. The Basic State Pension, the old system's full rate, rose from 119.30 to 184.90 pounds a week over the same period, up 55.0 per cent. Since 2010 both have been uprated each April under the triple lock rule: by the highest of the Consumer Prices Index inflation rate the preceding September, average earnings growth over the preceding May to July, or 2.5 per cent, whichever is largest. This is a description of the mechanism, not an assessment of it.
Full new State Pension weekly rate, April of each year shown, nominal cash terms. Up 55% over ten years. Source: DWP Benefit and pension rates.
| Year | New State Pension | Basic State Pension | Pension Credit guarantee (single) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | £155.65 | £119.30 | - |
| 2017-18 | £159.55 | £122.30 | £159.35 |
| 2018-19 | £164.35 | £125.95 | £163.00 |
| 2019-20 | £168.60 | £129.20 | £167.25 |
| 2020-21 | £175.20 | £134.25 | £173.75 |
| 2021-22 | £179.60 | £137.60 | £177.10 |
| 2022-23 | £185.15 | £141.85 | £182.60 |
| 2023-24 | £203.85 | £156.20 | £201.05 |
| 2024-25 | £221.20 | £169.50 | £218.15 |
| 2025-26 | £230.25 | £176.45 | £227.10 |
| 2026-27 | £241.30 | £184.90 | £238.00 |
The 4.8 per cent rise applied from April 2026 was set by average earnings growth: ONS recorded average weekly earnings growth of 4.8 per cent for May to July 2025, against Consumer Prices Index inflation of 3.8 per cent in September 2025, so earnings growth, the highest of the three triple lock comparators, applied. These two comparator figures are ONS's own published statistics, not read from the DWP rates workbook used elsewhere on this page.
New State Pension and Basic State Pension full weekly rates, both nominal cash terms, DWP Benefit and pension rates, April of each year shown. Pension Credit Standard Minimum Guarantee is the single rate; both have their own separate uprating history and are not always uprated by the same percentage as the State Pension in a given year.
Two systems, side by side
The old Basic State Pension against the new State Pension
Anyone who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 is on the old system: the Basic State Pension, plus, for many, Additional State Pension built up through the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme or State Second Pension. Anyone who reached State Pension age on or after that date is on the new State Pension. In 2025 to 2026 the old system still has more recipients, 8.1 million against 5.0 million on the new State Pension, but by 2030 to 2031 DWP's forecast has that reversed, as the old system's recipients age out and nobody new joins it.
People who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016. Spend includes the Basic State Pension itself plus Additional State Pension (State Earnings Related Pension Scheme / State Second Pension), Graduated Retirement Benefit and lump sum payments paid on top of it.
People who reached State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016. Spend includes the standard new State Pension rate plus Protected Payments, an addition for some recipients with a large Additional State Pension entitlement carried over from the old system.
A small non-contributory State Pension for people aged 80 or over who do not qualify for a contributory State Pension, or whose contributory pension is below the Category D rate.
GB, DWP Annually Managed Expenditure basis, Spring Forecast 2026. Caseloads are DWP's own forecast year average figures in thousands, rounded to the nearest 1,000 per line, so the three rows do not sum exactly to the total State Pension caseload shown in the headline figures. 'Paid outside UK' recipients, mostly in Australia, Canada, the United States, Ireland and South Africa, are included within these totals, not counted separately.
The unclaimed benefit
Pension Credit: what goes unclaimed
Pension Credit is means tested, unlike the State Pension itself, and take up is well below 100 per cent. DWP's own estimate for the financial year ending 2024 is that 62 per cent of those entitled to Pension Credit actually claimed it, by caseload, and 71 per cent of the total amount of Pension Credit people were entitled to, by expenditure. On DWP's central estimate, about 820 thousand families were entitled to Pension Credit but did not claim it, leaving about 2.14 billion pounds of Pension Credit unclaimed that year, an average of about 2,600 pounds a year for each entitled non claimant family.
£5.26bn was claimed in the same year; the average entitled non claimant family missed out on about £2,600 a year.
DWP, Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up, financial year ending 2024, table PC1 (caseload) and PC2 (expenditure), Great Britain. 'Entitled non-recipients' and 'amount unclaimed' are DWP's own central modelled estimates with a 95 per cent confidence range shown alongside; they are not counts of individually identified people, since DWP does not know who is entitled but not claiming. Figures cover Pension Credit overall (Guarantee Credit and Savings Credit combined).
Living standards in retirement
The pensioner poverty rate
On DWP's Households Below Average Income measure, relative low income, below 60 per cent of median household income, 15.9 per cent of pensioners were in relative low income before housing costs in 2024/25, and 13.9 per cent after housing costs. The rate fell sharply from the mid 1990s to the early 2010s and has drifted up again since, though it remains well below its 1994/95 level on both measures.
DWP Households Below Average Income, financial years ending 1995 to 2025, table 1.6a, United Kingdom, relative low income (below 60 per cent of median household income that year), before housing costs (BHC) and after housing costs (AHC). There is a break in the series from 2021/22 with the introduction of integrated survey and benefit administrative data; figures either side of that break are not fully comparable, per DWP's own note on this table.
The rulebook
The State Pension age timetable, as legislated
State Pension age is not fixed: it has been rising under a legislated timetable since 2010, and is currently 66 for both men and women. It is due to rise further, to 67 and then 68, on the schedule below. This is the timetable currently in law; it is not a forecast or a recommendation.
| Date of birth | State Pension age |
|---|---|
| Born before 6 October 1954 | 66 (reached before or by 6 October 2020) |
| Born 6 October 1954 to 5 April 1960 | 66 |
| Born 6 April 1960 to 5 March 1961 | Between 66 and 67, rising gradually, reached between 2026 and 2028 |
| Born 6 March 1961 to 5 April 1977 | 67 |
| Born on or after 6 April 1977 | 68, as currently legislated, reached between 2044 and 2046 |
Pensions Act 1995, Pensions Act 2007, Pensions Act 2011 and Pensions Act 2014. A 2023 government review of the rise from 67 to 68 did not change this legislated timetable; by law the UK government must review State Pension age at least once every six years.
Questions this raises
For the State Pension
- 1.
By 2030 to 2031 the new State Pension overtakes the old Basic State Pension system on both spend and recipient numbers. As the old system's recipients continue to age out over the following decade, what happens to the total bill once essentially everyone is on the new, generally higher, flat rate system?
- 2.
DWP's own central estimate is that some 820,000 families entitled to Pension Credit did not claim it in the financial year ending 2024, leaving over 2 billion pounds unclaimed. Pension Credit also acts as a gateway to other help, including the Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners. How much of the gap between State Pension recipient numbers and Pension Credit take up reflects genuine ineligibility, and how much reflects eligible people not claiming?
- 3.
The pensioner poverty rate fell for over a decade and has since drifted back up. How much of that recent rise tracks the same years in which Pension Credit take up, by DWP's own figures, also fell?
- 4.
State Pension age is due to reach 67 by 2028 and, on the timetable currently in law, 68 by 2046. How does a rising State Pension age interact with the triple lock's effect on the weekly rate, for someone weighing up their own retirement age?
Sources & method
Data provenance
- DWP Outturn and forecast tables, Spring Forecast 2026 ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- DWP Benefit and pension rates, 2016/17 to 2026/27 (11 annual editions) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- DWP Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up, financial year ending 2024 ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- DWP Households Below Average Income: financial years ending 1995 to 2025 ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- gov.uk: State Pension age timetable ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
Caveats & data notes
- The State Pension is not means tested; Pension Credit is a separate, means tested benefit for pensioners on a low income. They are shown together on this page because they interact (Pension Credit tops up a low State Pension and unlocks other help) but they are not the same benefit and their recipient numbers should not be added together.
- The Basic State Pension (old system) and the new State Pension are genuinely different systems with different rates, paid to different people depending only on when they reached State Pension age, not on any choice they made. Comparing the two weekly rates directly is comparing two different entitlements, not a like for like rise for the same pensioner.
- The 13.2 million recipients figure is DWP's Great Britain forecast year average caseload and includes about 1.1 million people living outside the UK who receive a UK State Pension. It excludes Northern Ireland, which administers its own social security system.
- All figures for 2030 to 2031 are DWP and Office for Budget Responsibility consistent forecasts from the Spring Forecast 2026, not outturn, and are not a certainty.
- Weekly rate figures are nominal cash terms, not adjusted for inflation, so part of the rise since 2016 reflects general price and earnings growth rather than a bigger real terms pension.
- Pension Credit entitled non-recipients and the amount unclaimed are DWP's own modelled central estimates with a stated confidence range, not a count of specifically identified people; DWP does not know exactly who is entitled but not claiming.
- The pensioner poverty series has a break from 2021/22 when DWP moved to integrated survey and benefit administrative data; DWP's own guidance says figures either side of that break are not fully comparable.
- This page's spend and caseload figures for 2025-26 and 2030-31 are read from the same primary DWP workbook, and computed with an independent extraction, as the already published welfare bill deep-dive on this site, and reconcile with it.
- Source: see the sources list above; each figure is dated to the specific release named.
Every figure on this page traces to its official source. Share it as it stands.
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