State pension calculator: find out what age you will retire

Wondering when you’ll get your state pension? Telegraph Money has created a calculator that reveals the exact date you’ll get yours. Simply plug in your details to do away with any confusion.

There’s much to be confused about when it comes to the state pension. Unlike a personal pension, which you can access from 55 (or 57 from 2028), the age at which you claim the state pension depends on when you were born. And the amount you receive depends on how many National Insurance contributions (NICs) you’ve clocked up during your working life.

Regular news stories, such as those about the future of the state pension’s triple lock, only prompt more uncertainty. Here, Telegraph Money explains everything you need to know. In this guide we will cover:

• When will I get the state pension?
• Why is there so much speculation about the state pension’s future?
• How do you qualify for the state pension?
• How to check you’re getting paid the right amount
• Could you boost your payments?
• Is it worth deferring?

When will I get the state pension?

The age at which you start to draw your state pension is currently 66.

Men and women used to have different state pension ages – 65 for men and 60 for women. However, the 1995 Pension Act legislated for the age to be equalised at 65 for both. This was phased in over a number of years ending in 2018. 

The age rose to 66 between 2018 and 2020, and is due to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028.

The change will be phased in, which means there will be periods when the state pension age is 66 years and between one and 11 months. This is where our calculator comes in useful – simply enter your date of birth below:

The state pension age rises mean anyone born after March 5, 1961 aged 62-years-old or younger today won’t be allowed to access their state pension until they’re at least 67.

As it currently stands, the state pension age is due to rise to 68 between 2044 and 2046. This shift to age 68 was recently reviewed, with many speculating the Government would bring it forward to 2035. This would have affected people born between 1968 and 1979. 

However, as life expectancy is growing at a slower rate than first estimated, the Government has opted to keep the current timetable as it is. It’s expected that this will be reviewed again after the next general election.

Why is there so much speculation about the state pension’s future?

There is a question over how the spiralling cost of an ageing population drawing the state pension for longer can continue to be funded.

Independent reviews and analysis point to the same thing: increasing the state pension age.

However, the Government must realistically balance these increases with people’s ability to work into their mid-to-late-sixties, especially those who have done manual jobs.

So how could some balance be struck? 

We could see the Government scrap the triple lock – the mechanism for uprating state pension every year by whichever is the highest of 2.5pc, wages or CPI inflation.

We could also see the Government consider an “early access scheme” to allow certain workers to receive their state pension younger.

How do you qualify for the state pension?

To get the new state pension – currently £203.85 a week – you need at least 35 full years of recorded NICs.

If you have contributed less than that, but have at least 10 years’ worth of contributions, then you’ll get a smaller pension. 

In some cases, plugging contribution gaps can financially benefit you, by boosting your state pension payments. You can do this by paying voluntary ‘Class 3’ contributions.

It does cost £907 to add an extra year of voluntary contributions – though partial years are cheaper. For that amount you’ll get an extra £5.82 added to your weekly state pension. That’s £302 per year, or £6,052 over a 20-year retirement. 

You could break even within a few years: paying an extra year of voluntary contributions means that as long as you live at least three years after state pension age you’ll get your money back.

It’s especially good value when you think that the state pension rises each year, becoming even more valuable over time.

Sounds straightforward? But there’s often confusion over whether paying these extra contributions is worthwhile, which years to opt for, and difficulties doing so due to recent poor service from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Generally, voluntary contributions are limited to only the previous six tax years, but there is currently a temporary window open until April 2025 allowing people to buy NI credits to fill in any gaps between tax years April 2006 to April 2016. 

You can check your National Insurance record here: https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record – you will need a Government Gateway user ID and password. 

Helen Morrissey of Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “It is really important to check with the DWP whether you will benefit from buying voluntary credits, as there may be cases – for instance, periods when you qualified for something like Child Benefit or Universal Credit, which come with a National Insurance credit. If this is the case, then you may be able to backdate a claim.”

How to check you’re getting paid the right amount

Gauging how much state pension you should be getting paid can be tricky. The widely publicised figures detail the “full” amount, but there are various reasons why you might get more or less than this. 

Variations can be down to your National Insurance record, the date at which you retired (this will dictate whether or not you receive the “new” state pension amount), as well as other variable such as whether you “contracted out”, whether you’re receiving a spouse’s state pension payments, and whether you started receiving state pension payments as soon as you became eligible for them. 

This complication has meant that thousands of people are being underpaid the state pension each year without even knowing it. Government errors that have come to light over the past few years meant that in 2022 alone meant that more than £500m in retirement income went unpaid. 

While the Government is working to rectify some of these errors, the process of identifying those who are owed money, and getting the money to them has been very slow. Therefore, it’s worth taking steps to find out how much you should be receiving, and what to do if it turns out you’re not being paid as much as you should.  

Could you boost your payments?

Even if you are being paid the correct amount of state pension, there are several ways you can boost what you receive. We already mentioned filling National Insurance gaps, but there are other methods to consider. For instance, you might also want to see whether deferring your payments for a couple of years, or claiming NI credits might work for you. 

In some cases, taking these steps could mean getting even higher payments than the advertised full state pension – which could really improve the standard of living you can achieve in retirement.

Is it worth deferring?

If you continue to work past state pension age, or perhaps if you have alternative means of income and don’t feel you “need” the extra cash, then you might want to hold off receiving your pension payments for a couple of years. This is known as deferring.

Delaying state pension payments may be a tax efficient step, particularly if you’re still working and state pension income would take you into a higher tax bracket. 

It also means you’ll be paid more when you do come to claim your payments – however, for the money to even out overall (that is, in order for you to receive the same amount of money as you would if you hadn’t deferred) you’ll need to bet on having a healthy life expectancy.

This article was first published on 20th May 2023 and is kept updated with the latest information.