How much is the State Pension?
The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week from April 2026, or £12,547.60 over a year. It applies to people who reached State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016. The full basic State Pension, for those who reached it earlier, is £184.90 a week. Both rose by 4.8% in April 2026 in line with earnings, DWP announced.
Many people get a different amount. The new State Pension depends on your National Insurance record: if it started after April 2016 you need 35 qualifying years for the full rate. People who were contracted out before 2016 may get less, and some get more through protected payments. The Pension Credit standard minimum guarantee is £238.00 a week for a single person.
The full rate is not an average payment; average amounts by type are in DWP Stat-Xplore. For how rises are set, see the triple lock.
When is the next figure out?
DWP statistics are pre-announced on the GOV.UK research and statistics calendar and published at 9:30am. Universal Credit statistics moved from monthly to quarterly releases in February, May, August and November after a 2026 consultation, with the final monthly release on 14 April 2026; provisional estimates were dropped and each quarterly release adds three months of finalised data. The benefits compendium, Benefit Combinations and National Insurance number allocations are now released together once a year. Fraud and error estimates appear each spring, and expenditure tables follow the Budget and spring forecast.
Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.
Where the figures come from
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics and Stat-XploreWhere to find DWP figures on Universal Credit, PIP, State Pension and Pension Credit, how to build a Stat-Xplore table and use the free Open Data API.
Related questions
- What is the State Pension triple lock?
- How many people claim Pension Credit?
- How many people get the State Pension?
This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about pensions and retirement: all Pensions and retirement questions.