the Daily Record<\/a>.<\/p>\nLatest Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics reveal that 13 million people are now claiming the State Pension. Of these, 34 per cent receive the New State Pension (introduced post-April 2016), whilst 66 per cent are on the Basic (or Old) State Pension (pre-April 2016).<\/p>\n
Those entitled to the full New State Pension currently pocket \u00a3230.25 weekly, and as payments are usually made every four weeks, this totals \u00a3921. Over the 2025\/26 financial year, annual payments amount to \u00a311,973.<\/p>\n
However, not everyone among the 4.1 million people on the New State Pension receives the full sum, as it’s tied to National Insurance Contributions.<\/p>\n
Brits must contribute at least 10 years’ worth of National Insurance Contributions (NICs) to qualify for any State Pension, with around 35 years required for the full rate \u2013 though this can be higher for those who have been ‘contracted out’.<\/p>\n
Someone receiving the full Basic State Pension currently gets weekly payments of \u00a3176.45, or \u00a3705.80 per four-week payment period. Annual payments total \u00a39,175.40 over the 2025\/26 financial year.<\/p>\n
Patrick Thomson, Head of Research Analysis and Policy at Phoenix Insights, commented: “The State Pension remains at a critical juncture with questions remaining over its long-term affordability and the future of the Triple Lock. Projections suggests there will be five million more State Pensioners in the UK by 2070 compared to just one million more people of working-age.”<\/p>\n
Four key findings about the State Pension<\/p>\n
Phoenix Insights found that:<\/p>\n
Around a fifth (18%) of adults say they could live on the state pension alone in retirementA third (35%) of the pre-State Pension age group (60-65yrs) have zero private pension saving45% of adults expect to work beyond their State Pension age to plug gaps in savings3 million people would see a delay in State Pension payments if the retirement age increase to 68 is brought forward to 2041-2043<\/p>\n
Mr Thomson continued: \u201cAccelerating the State Pension age could mitigate some of the cost challenge, but recent life expectancy projections are less optimistic making policy change potentially more difficult. Bringing forward the State Pension age increase to age 68 to the early 2040s would impact nearly three million people and not everyone will be able to work to a later State Pension age.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are expecting another State Pension age review in this parliament which should offer more clarity on the timetable of the future increase to age 68.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt\u2019s important that any future change to the State Pension is combined with policy interventions to support greater retirement adequacy, including enabling people to remain in work later in life and boosting pension saving through auto-enrolment.\u201d<\/p>\n
New State Pension payment rates 2026\/27<\/p>\n
Full New State Pension<\/p>\n
Weekly: \u00a3241.30 (from \u00a3230.25)Four-weekly pay period: \u00a3965.20Annual amount: \u00a312,547<\/p>\n
Full Basic State Pension<\/p>\n
Weekly: \u00a3184.90 (from \u00a3176.45)Four-weekly pay period: \u00a3739.60Annual amount: \u00a39,614Future State Pension increases<\/p>\n
The Labour Government has pledged to honour the Triple Lock or the duration of its term and the latest predictions show the following projected annual increases:<\/p>\n
2026\/27 – 4.8%, confirmed at the Autumn Budget2027\/28 – 2.5%2028\/29 – 2.5%2029\/30 – 2.5%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State Pension age is set to rise from 66 to 67 from April 2025, completing by 2028,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,114926,39410,176,61,60,40582,174,175,1650,10717,1171],"class_list":{"0":"post-222504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-daily-record","10":"tag-department-for-work-and-pensions","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-life-expectancy","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-retirement-age","19":"tag-state-pension"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Senior](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_Senior-couple-dealing-with-financial-problems-and-bureaucracy.jpg\")
The third review of the State Pension age was initiated in July(Image: Miljan \u017divkovi\u0107 via Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3_man-and-woman-jpegjpegjpeg.jpg\")
The State Pension age is set to rise from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028 with a further rise planned to 68.(Image: Getty )<\/p>\n