this is the figure that will be used to increase the State Pension by next year<\/a>.<\/p>\nHow does inflation impact benefits?<\/p>\n
The Government is required to review the level of benefits each year to see if they have kept up with increases in general prices. Inflation in the year to September has generally been the measure used.<\/p>\n
That worked against recipients this April – when Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Carer\u2019s Allowance, Income Support, Housing Benefit or Jobseeker\u2019s Allowance rose by only 1.7% – the rate of inflation in September 2024.<\/p>\n
But by April this year, the same measure of living costs had jumped to 3.5%. The September inflation number is expected to be a peak, and is likely to be lower by next April, based on current assumptions.<\/p>\n
How much will my benefits rise by?<\/p>\n
We need to wait for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to confirm the details, and the size of the increase will also depend on the benefits you get.<\/p>\n
But in previous years, the September rate of inflation has been used to determine the uprating for most benefits. This means many benefits look set to increase by 3.8% next April.<\/p>\n
There are nine benefits which the DWP is legally required to increase in line with inflation each April. Other benefits are subject to Parliamentary approval. The benefits that are legally required to rise with inflation are:<\/p>\n
Personal Independence Payment (PIP)Disability Living AllowanceAttendance AllowanceIncapacity BenefitSevere Disablement AllowanceIndustrial Injuries BenefitCarer’s AllowanceAdditional State PensionGuardian’s AllowanceHow much will Universal Credit rise by?<\/p>\n
The standard allowance will be increasing by the September rate of inflation and then a further 2.3%. In cash terms the standard allowance is set to rise from \u00a392 to \u00a398 per week for singles and from \u00a3145 to \u00a3154 per week for couples.<\/p>\n
However, this is offset for new claimants with a long-term health condition or a disability. There is an extra payment called the “limited capability for work-related activity” element and this amount is decreasing from next April for most people who aren\u2019t already getting it.<\/p>\n
How much will the State Pension rise by?<\/p>\n
Given September\u2019s inflation, the Triple Lock Promise is lower than average earnings growth figure for May to July 2025 of 4.8% – meaning that in April 2026 the full rate of the new State Pension is likely to rise by \u00a311 to \u00a3241 per week.<\/p>\n
While not every pensioner receives exactly this amount, the majority of newly retired pensioners receive the full rate of the new State Pension, or an amount very close to this.<\/p>\n
What do charities and others have to say?<\/p>\n
Anna Stevenson, a benefits expert at anti-poverty charity Turn2us, said increasing the Universal Credit standard allowance above inflation was \u201ca step in the right direction, but it comes after decades of erosion. \u201c<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cMany households will still struggle to meet basic costs because rents, childcare and energy have risen far faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Resolution Foundation points out that the real-terms value of the standard allowance has fallen by 10% since 2012\/13 because of a jump in inflation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rate of benefits increases in April in line with the rate of inflation from the previous SeptemberThe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1052,138,3733,246,300,111,139,69,244,245,3452],"class_list":{"0":"post-95111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-benefits","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-dwp","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-money","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-personal-finance","17":"tag-personalfinance","18":"tag-state-pension"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Older](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_GettyImages-1417752404.jpg\")
The rate of inflation in September remained at 3.8%(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n