State Pension age calculator

How does this State Pension age calculator work?

It is a State Pension age checker with one input. It reads your date of birth against the timetable Parliament has legislated and returns the age your State Pension starts, the exact day you get there, and how far away that is. The National Insurance slider then prices what it will pay.

This is one of the few numbers in retirement planning that is not a projection. There are no growth assumptions, no inflation and no scenarios: your State Pension age is a fact about your date of birth and the law as it stands, which is exactly why it makes such a good fixed point to plan the rest of your retirement around. Everything runs in your browser and your date of birth never leaves it. The share button carries your result in the link, and the embed at the bottom of the page puts the calculator on your own site.

What is the State Pension age in the UK right now?

66 today, rising to 67 between 6 May 2026 and 6 March 2028, and to 68 between 2044 and 2046. It has been the same for men and women since 6 October 2020.

The two gaps in that list are the phased cohorts. People born between 6 April 1960 and 5 March 1961 reach State Pension age at 66 plus a number of months that rises with their birthday, one month for each month of the year. People born between 6 April 1977 and 5 April 1978 sit on the rise from 67 to 68, which Parliament set date by date rather than by a tidy monthly step. If you are in either group, the two tables below show where you land, and the calculator gives the day.

State Pension age by year of birth

Born from 6 Oct 1954 to the end of 1959, it is 66. Born in 1962 to 1976, it is 67. Born in 1979 or later, it is 68. The years between are the phased rises, and the table gives every year of birth with the year you reach it.

The pattern behind the table is simple. Anyone born between 6 October 1954 and 5 April 1960 reaches State Pension age at 66, and the last of them get there on 5 April 2026. The 1960-born and the first weeks of 1961 are the phased cohort on the way to 67. Everyone born from 6 March 1961 to 5 April 1977 is on 67, reaching it between 2028 and 2044, and everyone born from 6 April 1978 is on 68 - which is where the reviews described further down come in, because that cohort is the one a future rise would land on first.

When can you retire if you were born in the 1960s or 1970s?

Two dates, years apart: the day your State Pension starts and the earliest a private pension can be touched. The State Pension starts at 67 whether you were born in 1963 (reached in 2030) or 1972 (2039). A private or workplace pension can normally be taken from 55, rising to 57 on 6 April 2028, and you can stop work whenever your own savings can carry you from one date to the other.

The 1961 row is the last with a phased answer: the final step of the phasing puts anyone born in the month to 5 March 1961 on 66 years and 11 months, and from the next day it is a flat 67, which is where everyone born from 1962 to 1976 sits. The 1977-born are the first cohort the rise to 68 touches, and everyone born from 6 April 1978 is on 68. Those are the fixed points. The variable one is whether you can afford to stop before the State Pension arrives, and for that the year you were born matters far less than what you have saved: someone born in 1967 with £429,227 in today's money could stop at 60 on £2,200 a month, while someone born the same year with half that is looking at their State Pension date. The retirement age calculator works the affordable age out from your savings, your monthly contributions and the State Pension age above.

The full legislated timetable by date of birth

The date-of-birth bands exactly as the law sets them, including the eleven monthly steps of the rise from 66 to 67. This is the table the calculator reads.

When does the State Pension age rise to 67 and 68?

The rise to 67 happens between 6 May 2026 and 6 March 2028, one month at a time. The rise to 68 is legislated for 2044 to 2046.

The Pensions Act 2014 brought the rise to 67 forward by eight years, from the 2034 to 2036 window the 2007 Act had set, and it is the rise that is happening now. Someone born on 6 April 1960 reaches State Pension age at 66 years and 1 month; someone born on 5 March 1961 at 66 years and 11 months; and from 6 March 1961 the age is a flat 67. The cost of the phasing is real money: each month added to your State Pension age is roughly £1,046 of State Pension you do not receive, so the 5 March 1961-born give up about £11,502 at the full rate compared with someone born a year earlier.

The rise to 68 still sits on the Pensions Act 2007 timetable, reaching people born from 6 April 1977 between 2044 and 2046. A 2017 review recommended bringing it forward to 2037 to 2039, which would have caught everyone born from April 1970; the 2023 review decided against that and left the legislated dates in place. Nothing has been enacted since, so the calculator applies the law as it stands and says so when your cohort is one the next review could move.

Will the State Pension age go up again?

Probably, for anyone under about 45. The law requires a review of State Pension age at least every six years, every review so far has looked at moving it later, and the third review has been running since July 2025.

The Pensions Act 2014 requires the Secretary of State to review State Pension age periodically, taking an independent report on the factors that should shape it and a Government Actuary's Department report on life expectancy. The first review concluded in 2017 and the second in 2023. The third was launched in July 2025, with the independent report led by Dr Suzy Morrissey, and its call for evidence closed in the autumn of 2025. It had not reported when this guide was last updated, and until it does the legislated position is the one in the tables above.

Two things are settled whatever the review says. Any change needs primary legislation and, by convention, at least ten years' notice, so nobody within a decade of their current State Pension age is likely to be moved. And the review can only make the age later, not earlier: no review has ever recommended bringing State Pension age down.

How much State Pension will I get?

The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026/27, which is £12,547.60 a year or about £1,046 a month, paid every four weeks. The rate does not depend on your State Pension age: your age decides when it starts, and your National Insurance record decides how much.

The new State Pension applies to men born on or after 6 April 1951 and women born on or after 6 April 1953, which is everyone reaching State Pension age since April 2016. Anyone older is on the basic State Pension, a different scheme with different rules. The full rate on its own is £1,352 a year short of the £13,900 Pensions UK minimum living standard for a single person, so for most people it is the floor of a retirement income rather than the whole of it: our guide to how much you need to retire works out what has to sit on top.

To see your own figure, move the qualifying-years slider on the calculator above, then compare it with your free State Pension forecast on gov.uk if you have not reached State Pension age yet. The forecast reads your actual National Insurance record, shows what you could get and lists any gaps you could still fill. If you paid National Insurance before April 2016, trust the forecast over the slider - the next section explains why.

How many National Insurance years do you need?

35 qualifying years for the full new State Pension and at least 10 for any at all. Every year between the two is worth £358.50 a year for life, which the table prices at each step.

Working is the usual way to earn a qualifying year, but it is not the only one. Child Benefit claims for a child under 12 carry National Insurance credits, and so do Carer's Allowance, Jobseeker's Allowance, Universal Credit and some periods of illness - which is why a parent who took a decade out of paid work can still have a full record. The gap most people find when they check is a missing Child Benefit claim, often because a higher-earning partner opted out of the payment without registering for the credit.

The straight 35ths rule the calculator uses is exact for anyone whose record began after April 2016. If you were paying National Insurance before then, your record goes through a "starting amount" calculation instead. It compares what you would have got under the old rules with what you would get under the new ones, takes the higher, and deducts a sum for any years you were contracted out of the additional State Pension through a workplace scheme. That can leave you above the full rate, with a protected payment on top, or below it despite 35 years. The date this page gives you is right either way; for the amount, your free State Pension forecast is the number to trust.

Is it worth paying voluntary National Insurance?

Usually, yes, and by a wide margin. A year of Class 3 contributions costs £956.80 at 2026/27 rates and adds £358.50 a year to your State Pension for life, so it pays for itself in under 3 years of retirement.

The catch is that a filled gap only helps if it moves you closer to 35 qualifying years. Someone already on course for the full amount by State Pension age gains nothing from paying for an old gap, and someone with a pre-2016 record needs to check that the year actually raises their starting amount. That is why the forecast comes first: it lists every gap, says whether filling it would increase your pension, and quotes the price. You can fill gaps going back 6 tax years, with a deadline of 5 April each year, and the self-employed can often use the far cheaper Class 2 rate of £3.65 a week.

Set against the alternatives, it is hard to beat. The same £956.80 invested would have to earn 37.5% a year, inflation-linked and guaranteed for life, to match it - a rate no annuity comes close to. The retirement age calculator shows the other side of the same coin: raise the State Pension amount there and the pot you need at any given age falls.

Should you defer your State Pension?

You do not have to claim at State Pension age. Every 9 weeks you put it off adds 1% to the weekly amount for life - just under 5.8% for a full year - and it takes about 17 years to get back what you gave up.

Deferral suits someone still working past State Pension age who would pay 40% tax on the pension now and 20% or nothing later, or someone in good health with a family history of long lives. It suits nobody who needs the income, and the extra amount is taxable and can affect means-tested benefits. If you defer for less than a year you can instead take the missed payments as a lump sum with no interest added, which is rarely the better choice. Our pension drawdown calculator shows what drawing more from your own pot during a deferral year does to how long it lasts.

Is the State Pension taxed?

Yes. It counts as income for income tax but is paid without any tax taken off, and with the full rate now within £22.40 of the £12,570 personal allowance, almost every other pound of income on top is taxable.

The practical effect is that £10,000 a year of private pension on top of a full State Pension costs £1,995.52 in tax, and the personal allowance has been frozen at £12,570 while the triple lock keeps raising the State Pension. One more April rise of the size seen recently and the full State Pension alone will exceed the allowance, at which point pensioners with no other income at all will owe a small amount of tax on it. Our guide to how long a pension pot lasts shows what taking a private pension on top does to the pot over a whole retirement.

Can you keep working after State Pension age?

Yes, for as long as you like. There is no default retirement age, you can claim the State Pension while you work, and you stop paying National Insurance on your earnings - worth £2,118 a year on the £39,039 median full-time salary.

Employee National Insurance is 8% of earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and it ends on the day you reach State Pension age whether or not you claim. Give your employer proof of your age and the deduction disappears from the next payslip, which on a median salary is an immediate rise of about £176 a month in take-home. Your employer keeps paying their own National Insurance, and income tax carries on as before. The disposable income calculator shows what the deduction is costing you today.

The trap is tax. Claim the State Pension and keep a full-time salary and the pension uses up your personal allowance, so more of your wages are taxed than you are used to, and a higher earner can find the pension taxed at 40%. That is the case for deferring described above: the 5.8% a year uplift, taken later at a lower rate, is usually worth more than the pension paid now and taxed at the top of a salary.

What is Pension Credit age?

The same as your State Pension age. Pension Credit qualifying age tracks it exactly, so the date this calculator gives you is also the first day you can claim Pension Credit, which tops a single pensioner's income up to £238.00 a week and a couple's to £363.25 in 2026/27.

Pension Credit is means-tested, so every pound of private pension or deemed savings income, and almost every pound of earnings, reduces the guarantee pound for pound until it reaches zero. That makes it a floor rather than an income: it is worth most to people with a short National Insurance record or no private pension, and it is worth nothing to anyone whose State Pension and other income already clear the guarantee. What makes it worth checking even for a few pounds a week is what it unlocks - Council Tax Reduction, Housing Benefit if you rent, Support for Mortgage Interest if you own, and a free TV licence from 75 - which together can be worth far more than the credit itself. The DWP's own Pension Credit calculator gives an estimate from your income and savings.

Two things to know before State Pension age. You cannot claim it early, for the same reason you cannot claim the State Pension early: the qualifying age is the date this page gives you. And deferring your State Pension while claiming Pension Credit earns no extra, so the deferral sums above only work for people whose income will be well clear of the guarantee. Our guide to retiring on £100,000 shows how much of a small pot's income the guarantee replaces, which is the case where Pension Credit changes the plan.

Is State Pension age the same as retirement age?

No. State Pension age is when the government starts paying you. Retirement age is when you can afford to stop working, and for most people the two are years apart in one direction or the other.

You can normally take a workplace or personal pension from 55, rising to 57 on 6 April 2028, and money in an ISA at any age, so retiring before your State Pension age is entirely possible. The years between stopping work and the State Pension starting are the bridge years, and they are the most expensive part of any early retirement: during the bridge your own savings carry your whole cost of living, and once the State Pension arrives about £1,046 a month of that load is covered for life.

So the real question is not when the State Pension starts but whether your own savings can carry you to it. The retirement age calculator answers exactly that, with your State Pension age filled in from your age and the bridge priced explicitly. If you have a stopping age in mind, our guides to retiring at 55 and retiring at 60 work through the bridge for those ages, and the SIPP vs ISA guide covers which wrapper the bridge money should sit in, since a pension cannot be touched before 55 or 57.

Worked examples: four dates of birth

One person from each cohort, run through the calculator above. Type the same date of birth in to see the full result.

What this calculator leaves out

It gives the legislated age and date for anyone born from 6 October 1954, and prices a National Insurance record built from April 2016. Anything outside that needs your gov.uk forecast.

• The earlier timetable. Anyone born before 6 October 1954 reached State Pension age under the equalisation rules, at an age between 60 and 66 that depended on sex as well as date of birth. The calculator says so rather than guessing.
• The 67-to-68 phased cohort. Born between 6 April 1977 and 5 April 1978, your exact date was set individually by the Pensions Act 2007, so the calculator sends you to gov.uk for the day.
• Pre-2016 records. The starting amount calculation, contracted-out deductions and protected payments can all move the amount away from the straight 35ths rule the slider applies.
• Time abroad. Years worked in some countries count towards the 10-year minimum under social security agreements, and the State Pension is frozen at its starting rate if you retire to a country without an uprating agreement.
• Inherited and spousal amounts. Some people can inherit part of a late spouse's or civil partner's State Pension or protected payment. The calculator prices your own record only.
• Means-tested top-ups. Pension Credit guarantees £238.00 a week to a single pensioner and £363.25 to a couple from State Pension age, as the section above explains. The calculator prices your National Insurance record only; whether the guarantee tops it up depends on your other income and savings.

Two other things arrive at State Pension age that the calculator does not show. In England an older person's bus pass comes with it; in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland the bus pass starts at 60. And the invitation to claim comes by letter about two months before your date - if it does not, you can request an invitation code from three months out.