The UK State Pension: 10 years, 35 years and an age of 67 — how it is actually counted

The British State Pension does not work the way most newcomers expect. It does not depend on what you earned and is not a percentage of your salary. One thing matters: how many "qualifying years" of National Insurance you have. A year counts if in that tax year you paid contributions from work or self-employment — or received NI credits without paying anything.

What it pays

In the 2026/27 tax year the full new State Pension is £241.30 a week, roughly £12,548 a year. The old basic pension, which applies to people who retired before April 2016, is £184.90 a week. The pension is taxable income: if you have other income, part of it goes in tax, although the payment itself arrives without deductions.

Ten years and thirty-five

Two numbers to remember. Ten qualifying years is the minimum to get anything at all — below ten it is zero, however much you earned in those years. Thirty-five years is the usual benchmark for the full amount; with less, the pension is worked out proportionally, roughly 1/35 per year. In money, one qualifying year is currently worth about £6.90 a week, or some £358 a year for life.

The years need not be consecutive. Five years of work, eight years abroad, then another seven in the UK is twelve qualifying years, and they all count.

When you reach pension age

From 6 April 2026 the State Pension age rises from 66 to 67, phased by date of birth. Anyone born before 6 April 1960 qualifies at 66. Those born between 6 April 1960 and 5 March 1961 fall into the transition: 66 plus a set number of months, different for each narrow band of dates. For everyone born on or after 6 April 1961, the pension age is 67. The law also sets a further rise to 68 in 2044–2046, still subject to review.

Check your own date in the GOV.UK calculator: inside the transition band a week’s difference in birth date moves your pension date by months.

Years you did not pay for

NI credits fill a year without contributions. The common cases: you claimed Child Benefit for a child under 12, received Carer’s Allowance, were on Universal Credit or jobseeker’s benefits, or on statutory sick pay. For many families this is decisive: a parent who stayed home with children and formally did not work may find they hold full qualifying years — but only if the Child Benefit claim was in their name rather than the spouse’s. That detail tends to be checked last and is slow to fix retrospectively.

How to check your record

Two GOV.UK pages come before any planning. "Check your State Pension forecast" shows what you would get as things stand, and what you would get if you work to pension age. "Check your National Insurance record" shows every year as full, partial or empty, and what it would cost to top up. A gap in a year you know you worked is worth raising with HMRC: errors in NI records are not rare, particularly where employers changed or an NI number arrived late.

Buying missing years

Gaps can be filled with voluntary contributions. The 2026/27 rates: Class 3 at £18.40 a week, about £957 for a full year; Class 2, for the self-employed, at £3.65 a week. The arithmetic usually favours buying: a year at £957 adds around £358 a year for life, paying for itself in under three years of pension.

But do not buy blind. Some years add nothing — if you will reach 35 years anyway, or if the year falls in a period counted under the old rules. Before paying, call the Future Pension Centre with the specific years in hand and ask whether that payment increases your figure. You can normally top up the last six years; earlier ones have their own windows.

Years worked in another country

Time earned abroad sometimes helps you reach the minimum ten years — where a social security agreement exists between the UK and that country. Those years do not raise the British payment itself, but they can unlock entitlement for someone with fewer than ten British years. It is a case-by-case exercise with specific countries and specific periods, better done early than a month before pension age.

You have to claim it

The State Pension does not arrive by itself. About two months before pension age an invitation letter comes with a code for the claim; if no letter arrives, you claim on GOV.UK or by phone. Payments come every four weeks, in arrears.

You can also defer. Every nine weeks of deferral raises the amount by about 1% — roughly 5.8% for a full year deferred — and the increase is permanent. For anyone still working past 67 that is often better than drawing the pension and paying tax on it at their normal rate.