years
A qualifying year is a tax year in which you paid (or were credited with) enough National Insurance. You need 10 to get anything and 35 for the full new State Pension.
Work out your new State Pension for the 2026/27 tax year. It does not depend on your salary — only on your National Insurance qualifying years. The full rate is £241.30 a week.
A qualifying year is a tax year in which you paid (or were credited with) enough National Insurance. You need 10 to get anything and 35 for the full new State Pension.
Optional. The State Pension is a flat amount, so it replaces a bigger share of a low salary than of a high one. Leave blank to skip.
The new State Pension builds up at £6.894 a week for each qualifying year (the full rate divided by 35), up to the full £241.30 a week.
Guidance only, not an official calculation. Rates as at 6 April 2026 (tax year 2026/27, full rate £241.30 a week). This estimate uses the simple "qualifying years ÷ 35" formula, which is exact only if you started your National Insurance record on or after 6 April 2016. If you have NI contributions from before 2016, your figure may differ (a "starting amount", contracted-out deductions and Additional State Pension apply). For your real, personalised forecast use the official service at GOV.UK — Check your State Pension forecast.
It is a flat-rate pension based on your National Insurance record — not on what you earned
Unlike many countries, the UK State Pension does not depend on how much you earned. What counts is the number of qualifying years — tax years in which you paid or were credited with enough National Insurance (through work, or credits while claiming certain benefits or caring for someone).
You need at least 10 qualifying years to get any new State Pension. With fewer than 10 years you get nothing from it (though you may be able to fill gaps with voluntary contributions). The years do not have to be in a row.
You need 35 qualifying years for the full new State Pension of £241.30 a week. Between 10 and 34 years you get a proportion: the full rate divided by 35 (about £6.89 a week) for each qualifying year. Years beyond 35 do not increase your pension.
Each April the State Pension rises by the highest of average earnings growth, inflation or 2.5% — the triple lock. For 2026/27 it went up by 4.8%, taking the full rate from £230.25 to £241.30 a week.
The key points on qualifying years, the full rate and your State Pension age
The new State Pension is the regular payment from the government that most people reach when they hit State Pension age (currently 66). It replaced the old basic State Pension for anyone reaching pension age on or after 6 April 2016. The crucial thing to understand is that, unlike a workplace or personal pension, it is not based on your earnings: it is a flat-rate amount set by how many qualifying years of National Insurance you have built up over your working life.
The maths is straightforward. The full new State Pension for 2026/27 is £241.30 a week, and you need 35 qualifying years to get it in full. Each qualifying year is therefore worth £241.30 ÷ 35 = £6.894 a week. With fewer than 10 years you get nothing; with 10 to 34 years you get £6.894 multiplied by your number of years; and with 35 or more you get the full rate — extra years beyond 35 do not add anything. Multiply the weekly figure by 52 for a rough yearly amount (about £12,547.60 at the full rate), although the pension is actually paid every four weeks.
The "÷ 35" rule is exact for people who started their National Insurance record on or after 6 April 2016. If you have contributions from before then, the DWP works out a "starting amount" — the higher of what you would have got under the old and new systems — which may include Additional State Pension (SERPS/S2P) and deductions if you were ever contracted out. That individual figure can be above or below the simple calculation, and it can only be produced from your real NI record. This is why the official forecast needs your Government Gateway login.
You can only claim the State Pension once you reach State Pension age, currently 66 and rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028, with a further rise to 68 legislated for 2044–2046. The amount is the same across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each year it is protected by the triple lock — it rises by the highest of average earnings growth, CPI inflation or 2.5% — which is why the full rate increased by 4.8% to £241.30 a week for 2026/27.
Note: This is a general-purpose estimate using published GOV.UK rates. It does not check your National Insurance record, your State Pension age or any contracted-out history. For your binding, personalised forecast, use the official Check your State Pension service.
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