State Pension Forecast Calculator

The new UK State Pension for 2025/26 is worth £230.25 a week — £921 every four-week pay period or £11,973 a year — and it is paid for life from State Pension age, currently 66 (rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028, then 68 in the 2040s). To qualify for the full amount you need 35 qualifying years on your National Insurance (NI) record; you get nothing at all below 10 years; and between 10 and 35 years your pension is pro-rated. Most working adults accrue qualifying years automatically through Class 1 NI on PAYE earnings above the Lower Earnings Limit (£6,500 in 2025/26), through Class 2/4 NI on self-employment profit, or via NI credits while claiming Child Benefit, Carer’s Allowance, Universal Credit or Jobseeker’s Allowance. Gap years are common — career breaks, low-paid years that fell under the LEL, time abroad, full-time study after 18, or unclaimed Child Benefit credits because the higher earner was caught by the High Income Child Benefit Charge. This calculator shows your projected pension at current entitlement, the gap to the full pension, and the cost and payback of buying back missing years via voluntary Class 3 contributions at £907.40 per year (or the cheaper Class 2 at £179.40 if you were self-employed in the missing year). Filling a gap year typically adds £329 a year to your pension for life — payback in roughly 2.75 years on Class 3, or under 7 months on Class 2. Anyone living past 70 wins financially; couples where one partner has a long life expectancy win even more. The exception is people already at or near 35 years — extra contributions over 35 do not increase the pension. There is a critical one-off deadline of 5 April 2027 to buy gap years all the way back to 2006/07. After that, only the most recent 6 years are fillable under normal rules. Anyone in their 40s, 50s or 60s with patchy NI history should check now via the gov.uk Check Your State Pension service. The calculator does not handle protected payments from pre-2016 SERPS/S2P entitlement, contracted-out deductions, or deferral uplifts (currently 5.8% per year deferred). For full retirement planning combine this with the Pension Calculator and Lifetime ISA Calculator.