State pension to rise by 4.1% in April 2025

The state pension will rise by 4.1% in April 2025, taking the full rate of the new state pension to £230.30 a week, or £11,975 a year¹. The uprating follows the triple lock, the guarantee introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2011 under which payments rise each year by whichever is highest of September's Consumer Prices Index inflation, average earnings growth to July, or 2.5%¹.

Average wage growth for the May to July period was first published by the Office for National Statistics as 4%, but was revised to 4.1% because of late data¹. September's CPI inflation figure was 1.7%¹. The 4.1% earnings figure is therefore the highest of the three and sets the increase¹.

For pensioners receiving the full new state pension, the rise is worth £473 a year, up from £221.20 a week or £11,502.40 a year in 2024-25¹. The full basic state pension, paid to people who reached state pension age before April 2016, rises from £169.50 a week (£8,814 a year) to £176.45 a week, or £9,175 a year, a boost of £361¹.

Sources:¹

Qualifying for the full new state pension requires at least 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions, and at least 10 years to receive anything at all; people who reached state pension age before April 2016 need 30 years for the full basic state pension¹. State pension age is currently 66 for men and women, rising gradually to 67 between 2026 and 2028 for those born on or after April 1960, with a further gradual rise to 68 between 2044 and 2046 for those born in or after 1977¹.

Why it matters for households

The full new state pension of £11,975 in 2025-26 falls £594 short of the personal allowance, which is set to remain at £12,570 for most people². The state pension is paid gross, without tax deducted, but counts towards total income, so anyone with a workplace pension or other income on top is likely to be paying basic-rate tax already¹.

The personal allowance is frozen at £12,570 until 2028, and the Chancellor confirmed in the Autumn Budget that income tax thresholds will start rising with inflation from that point². On the guaranteed minimum triple lock increase of 2.5% a year, the full new state pension would reach £12,272 in 2026-27 and £12,578 in 2027-28, exceeding the personal allowance by £8 and producing a theoretical tax bill of £1.60 for a pensioner whose only income is the state pension². Those figures assume the 2.5% floor applies; a higher increase from inflation or earnings would draw pensioners further above the allowance².

The new state pension is paid to people who reach state pension age after 5 April 2016³. The amount received depends on the National Insurance record, and those with between 10 and 35 qualifying years receive a proportion of the full rate³. Voluntary Class 3 contributions can fill gaps in a National Insurance record, usually for the last six tax years, but people who reached or will reach state pension age after 6 April 2016 have had the option to fill gaps back to 2006, with a deadline of 5 April 2025; filling gaps from 2006 to April 2023 costs £15.85 a week, or £824 a year⁴.

What happens next

The 4.1% increase takes effect from April 2025¹. The deadline for filling National Insurance gaps back to 2006 is 5 April 2025⁴. State pension age rises to 67 between 2026 and 2028¹. From April 2027, money left in pensions will be included with the rest of an estate for inheritance tax purposes⁴.