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State Pension age calculator
One input. The age your State Pension starts, the exact date you get there, and what it will pay you when it does.
Your numbers
Your State Pension starts at 67. The bigger question is the age your own savings could let you stop.
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Updated for the 2026/27 tax year
How does this State Pension age calculator work?
It reads your date of birth against the timetable Parliament has legislated, and returns the age and the exact day your State Pension starts. Nothing else about you changes the answer.
Step 1
Find your cohort
Your date of birth places you in one band of the official timetable. The bands are set by the Pensions Acts of 2007 and 2014, not by anything you have earned or paid.
Step 2
Add the age to your birthday
Most people get a whole number of years. Two phased cohorts get years and months, which is why some people reach State Pension age on a date that is not their birthday.
Step 3
Price what it pays
The National Insurance slider applies the 35ths rule to the full new State Pension, so you can see what a short record costs you a year.
This is one of the few numbers in retirement planning that is not a projection. There are no growth assumptions, no inflation, 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.
What is the State Pension age in the UK?
66 for anyone born before 6 April 1960, 67 for most people born between 6 March 1961 and 5 April 1977, and 68 for anyone born on or after 6 April 1978. It is the same for men and women.
Born before 6 Apr 1960
66
The age State Pension age equalised at in October 2020, ending the long transition that began when women’s State Pension age started rising from 60.
Born 6 Mar 1961 to 5 Apr 1977
67
The largest single cohort. The rise from 66 to 67 completes for everyone born from 6 March 1961 onwards.
Born from 6 Apr 1978
68
Legislated by the Pensions Act 2007 and reaching people between 2044 and 2046. A 2023 review left the timetable where it was.
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, and people born between 6 April 1977 and 5 April 1978 sit on the rise from 67 to 68. If you are in either group, the table below shows exactly where you land.
State Pension age by date of birth
The full legislated timetable. Every row below is generated from the same rules the calculator uses, so the two can never drift apart.
| Date of birth | State Pension age |
|---|---|
| 5 October 1954 or earlier | Already reached |
| 6 October 1954 to 5 April 1960 | 66 |
| 6 April 1960 to 5 May 1960 | 66 years 1 month |
| 6 May 1960 to 5 June 1960 | 66 years 2 months |
| 6 June 1960 to 5 July 1960 | 66 years 3 months |
| 6 July 1960 to 5 August 1960 | 66 years 4 months |
| 6 August 1960 to 5 September 1960 | 66 years 5 months |
| 6 September 1960 to 5 October 1960 | 66 years 6 months |
| 6 October 1960 to 5 November 1960 | 66 years 7 months |
| 6 November 1960 to 5 December 1960 | 66 years 8 months |
| 6 December 1960 to 5 January 1961 | 66 years 9 months |
| 6 January 1961 to 5 February 1961 | 66 years 10 months |
| 6 February 1961 to 5 March 1961 | 66 years 11 months |
| 6 March 1961 to 5 April 1977 | 67 |
| 6 April 1977 to 5 April 1978 | Between 67 and 68 |
| 6 April 1978 or later | 68 |
The 67-to-68 rise is the one row we will not put a single age against. Parliament set those dates individually rather than by the tidy monthly step the 66-to-67 rise uses, so if you were born in that year, take your exact date from gov.uk rather than from us.
Worked examples: when does the State Pension start?
Three dates of birth, run through the calculator above.
Born 12 March 1958
66 reached 12 Mar 2024
Comfortably inside the flat 66 band, so her State Pension age landed on her birthday. She had to claim it: the letter arrives about two months before, but nothing is paid until you act on it.
Born 10 October 1960
66y 7m reaches 10 May 2027
One of the phased cohort. Seven months of the rise to 67 had been applied by his birthday, so his State Pension starts in May rather than on his October birthday. Those seven months are worth roughly £7,300 at the full rate, which is what the rise to 67 costs his cohort.
Born 15 June 1985
68 reaches 15 Jun 2053
Firmly in the 68 band. She has around 27 years of working life left, and at least four more statutory reviews of State Pension age between now and then, so this is the number to plan on rather than one to count on.
Will the State Pension age rise again?
Probably, for anyone under about 45. The Pensions Act 2014 requires the government to review State Pension age at least every six years, and every review so far has moved in one direction.
The legislated position today is 68 for anyone born on or after 6 April 1978, reached between 2044 and 2046. A previous government proposed bringing that forward to the late 2030s, and the 2023 review decided against it, leaving the existing timetable in place. That review also said the next one should report early in the following Parliament.
The practical response is not to guess at the next change. It is to make your plan robust to one. If your retirement only works because the State Pension arrives at 68, a rise to 69 does not cost you a year of income at the end of your life; it costs you a year of funding the gap yourself, at the most expensive point in the plan. Our retirement age calculator lets you move the State Pension age by hand and watch what a later start does to the number.
How much State Pension will you get?
The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week, or £12,547.60 a year, in 2026/27. You need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance for the full amount and at least 10 for any.
Full new State Pension
£241.30/wk
£12,547.60 a year. Paid every four weeks, and protected by the triple lock, which raises it each April by the highest of earnings growth, inflation or 2.5%.
Years for the full amount
35
Qualifying years, not years of work. Credits for raising children, caring, or claiming certain benefits count too, which is why checking your record is worth the ten minutes.
Minimum for anything
10 years
Below 10 qualifying years the new State Pension pays nothing at all. Between 10 and 35 it is roughly proportional to the years you have.
Gaps in a National Insurance record can often be filled by paying voluntary contributions, and each missing year is worth roughly £358 a year of State Pension for the rest of your life. That is one of the highest-return decisions available in UK personal finance, and it has deadlines. Your record and your personal forecast are both free at gov.uk/check-state-pension.
Can you retire before your State Pension age?
Yes, but not on the State Pension. Retiring earlier means funding every year between stopping work and your State Pension age entirely from your own savings.
Those are the bridge years, and they are the most expensive part of any early retirement. During the bridge your own pot carries your whole cost of living. Once your State Pension arrives, £1,046 a month of that load is covered for life, and what you need to withdraw falls by the same amount.
You can normally reach a workplace or personal pension at 55, rising to 57 on 6 April 2028, and an ISA at any age at all. So the real question is not when the State Pension starts but whether your own savings can carry you to it. Our retirement age calculator answers exactly that and prices the bridge explicitly, and the pension drawdown calculator shows how long a pot lasts once you start spending it.
Common questions
What is my State Pension age?
It depends only on your date of birth. If you were born before 6 April 1960 it is 66. If you were born between 6 March 1961 and 5 April 1977 it is 67. If you were born on or after 6 April 1978 it is 68. The two gaps between those dates are phased cohorts whose State Pension age falls between the whole years, which is what the calculator above works out for you.
Is the State Pension age going up to 68?
Yes, for anyone born on or after 6 April 1978, under the Pensions Act 2007 timetable that raises it between 2044 and 2046. A 2023 government review decided not to bring that forward, so the legislated position stands. But the law requires a review at least every six years, so if you are in your forties or younger, treat 68 as the current plan rather than a promise.
Can I take my State Pension early?
No. Unlike a workplace or personal pension, there is no way to take the State Pension before your State Pension age, no matter how long you have paid National Insurance. You can defer it and get more later: the new State Pension rises by 1% for every nine weeks you put off claiming, which is just under 5.8% for a full year.
How much is the full new State Pension in 2026/27?
£241.30 a week, which is £12,547.60 a year. That is the full rate. What you actually get depends on your National Insurance record, and the slider above shows the effect of having fewer than the 35 qualifying years the full amount needs.
How many qualifying years of National Insurance do I need?
35 qualifying years for the full new State Pension, and at least 10 to get anything at all. Between 10 and 35 the amount is roughly proportional. A qualifying year is one where you paid enough National Insurance or received credits, so years spent raising children or claiming certain benefits can count even when you were not working.
Why might my gov.uk forecast differ from this?
Because of what happened before April 2016. If you were paying National Insurance under the old two-part system, your record goes through a starting-amount calculation that can leave you above or below the straight 35ths this page uses, and contracted-out employment reduces it further. The date on this page is the legislated one either way. For the amount, your free gov.uk forecast is the number to trust.
Do I get the State Pension automatically?
No, and this catches people out. You will normally get a letter about two months before you reach State Pension age, but you have to claim it. Nothing arrives if you ignore the letter. If it does not turn up, you can claim online, by phone or by post.
Is the State Pension taxable?
Yes, it counts as income for income tax, though it is paid without tax taken off. With the personal allowance frozen at £12,570 and the full new State Pension at £12,547.60 a year, the full rate now sits within about £22 of the allowance. Any other income on top is therefore taxable almost from the first pound.
What happens if I keep working past State Pension age?
You can claim your State Pension and keep working, and you stop paying National Insurance on your earnings from that point, which is an immediate rise in take-home pay. Your State Pension is taxable alongside your wages, so a lot of people in this position find more of their salary taxed than they expected.
Is my date of birth stored anywhere?
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser and nothing you type is sent to our servers. If you choose to email yourself the result, we send your email address and the link to your scenario - that is the only data that leaves the page, and only when you ask.
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<iframe src="https://myretireage.com/embed/state-pension-age-calculator-uk" width="100%" height="860" style="border:0" title="State Pension age calculator - MyRetireAge" loading="lazy" allow="clipboard-write"></iframe>
<script>window.addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e.origin==="https://myretireage.com"&&e.data&&e.data.type==="myretireage:height"){var f=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var i=0;i<f.length;i++){if(f[i].contentWindow===e.source){f[i].style.height=e.data.height+"px"}}}});</script>MyRetireAge provides information and guidance, not financial advice. State Pension ages are those legislated at the time of writing and are subject to periodic government review. For your formal forecast and definitive date, use gov.uk. See our terms.