The state pension is the bedrock of your retirement income. But many people wrongly believe it is a fixed amount for everyone – in fact you have far more control over the income you receive than you probably realise.
There’s a whole smorgasbord of clever tricks you can use to boost the amount you will get in retirement – from making voluntary contributions to deferring when you start receiving the state pension.
You could boost your state pension by up to £2,747 a year by combining several of these tactics, according to calculations for The Mail on Sunday by investment group Quilter.
That’s an extra £54,940 over a 20-year retirement, or £65,930 if you live until you are 90. And that’s before you take into account annual increases in the state pension, which rises by at least 2.5 per cent a year under the triple lock.
Just half of the 13million people who receive the state pension get the full rate of £230.25 per week, official figures show.
Here’s how you can maximise your state pension income:
You could boost your state pension by up to £2,747 a year by combining several of these tactics, according to calculations for The Mail on Sunday by investment group Quilter
How much state pension should you get?
Start by figuring out how much you can expect to receive from the state pension and when you can start claiming it.
If you are on track to receive less than the maximum, take action.
The amount you will receive depends on several factors, including when you reached state pension age and how many years of National Insurance (NI) contributions or credits you have built during your working life.
The first thing to know is there are two different types of state pension. There’s the old state pension under which you get the ‘basic’ state pension plus earnings-related top-ups and the ‘new’ flat rate state pension for younger retirees.
If you reached state pension age before April 6, 2016, you fall under the old system. This means – provided you have 30 years of NI contributions – you should get the full basic state pension of £176.45 a week, or £9,175 a year.
This ‘basic’ amount is typically topped up by an entitlement to SERPS or state second pension, which you will have accrued automatically and is linked to your earnings.
Some workers were ‘contracted out’ of this additional state pension, meaning the entitlement has gone into their private workplace pension, which will be larger as a result.
If you reached state pension age on or after April 6 2016, you will get the new state pension, which is currently £230.25 a week, or £11,973 a year. There are no top-ups for this payment. To get the full amount you usually need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions or credits.
If you don’t have 35 years on your record, you will receive a proportion of the full amount. For example, if you have 20 years you would receive 20/35th of the full amount so £131.57 a week. You need at least ten years of NI contributions to receive any state pension at all.
A qualifying year is one where you either paid enough National Insurance through work or received National Insurance credits when you were claiming certain benefits, caring for someone or out of work.
Start by claiming back any missing years
Before you start trying to boost your state pension, you should figure out if you are missing any years of contributions.
You may be able to act to top up your NI record.
Check your forecast by contacting the Government’s Future Pension Centre on 0800 731 0175 if you are below 66, or the Pension Service for those above pension age on 0800 731 7898. You can also access your forecast online at gov.uk/check-state-pension.
It will tell you the date you can start claiming your pension and give you a forecast of what you are currently set to receive. You can also click through to see your full National Insurance record. This last option will show you how many qualifying years you have and any missing or incomplete years.
A quick look for myself showed I’ve still got 26 years to go before I reach my state retirement age and I need another ten qualifying years if I want to get the full state pension. So, I have plenty of time to build that. It also helpfully told me there is nothing I can do now to boost what I’ll get. But that may not be the case for you.
If anything on your forecast looks wrong, such as if there are any missing contributions in years when you were working or caring, you can query it. Just one missing year that isn’t corrected could cost you £170 a year in retirement – that’s £3,400 over 20 years.
Dean Butler, of pension company Standard Life, says: ‘Around 750,000 people are not receiving the correct state pension amount either due to errors in National Insurance records or the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) not making adjustments when there’s a change to your circumstances.’
Butler recommends that anyone who took time out of work to care for children, who has been in receipt of Universal Credit or who is over 80, should be particularly vigilant and check their record is correct.
Mistakes are common, so you may be able to swiftly boost your pension by calling the helpline on 0800 731 0175 to correct things.
If you find that you have gaps in your National Insurance record and you don’t have enough time left before retirement to earn the required amount, there are two ways you can fill them in.
The first option is free. Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, says you should check to see if you qualified for a benefit that comes with a National Insurance credit at that time.
Examples include Child Benefit, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit. ‘If you qualify then you may be able to backdate a claim and receive the National Insurance credits,’ she says.
You can find a full list of what qualifies for National Insurance credits at gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility.
Boosting your retirement income means you can enjoy more relaxing holidays (picture posed by model)
One key reason that is often overlooked, but could be valuable for many grandparents or helpful family members, is caring for children under 12 so that their parents can work. National Insurance credits can be transferred to a family member who is under state pension age and caring for the child. Each year of transferred credit can be worth £330 a year in state pension, potentially adding £6,600 to a 20-year retirement.
Jon Greer, head of retirement policy at Quilter, says: ‘Applications for specified adult childcare credits are surging as more families catch on to the fact that looking after grandchildren doesn’t just help with childcare but can also boost your retirement income.’
If you are eligible for National Insurance credits and haven’t received them, you can apply for credits at gov.uk.
Pay to fill any gaps
If you have missing years and can’t claim National Insurance credits, the other option is to make voluntary contributions to fill those years. You can only do this if the missing NICs are in the past six years.
How much you will pay depends on the rate charged in those years. In 2025/26, the charge is £923 for the year.
It can make a huge difference to your retirement income to buy missing years. Spending around £5,538 to fill in six missing years could secure you an extra £2,053 of inflation-linked state pension income for each year of retirement. So within three years you will have got your money back and the deal will look increasingly lucrative the longer you live in retirement.
Adam Cole, a retirement specialist at Quilter, says: ‘In simple terms, that means the upfront cost can pay for itself in just under two and a half years of retirement, before taking into account the fact that the income then continues for life and rises each year under the triple lock.’
To try to buy the same level of secure, inflation-linked income privately would be far more expensive. At current annuity rates, £5,538 would buy you just £250 to £260 a year of guaranteed income – an eighth of what you can receive for your money by filling NI gaps.
Cole says: ‘Ultimately, the state pension remains one of the few places where individuals can still buy a guaranteed, inflation-linked income at a clearly defined price. Used carefully, it can be extremely effective.’
But before you make any voluntary contributions to boost your state pension, make sure it will have an impact, warns Morrissey.
She explains: ‘If you were contracted out at any point in your working life, you may find that you won’t benefit from making extra contributions.’
Those who were ‘contracted out’ of the state pension by their employers are likely to receive less. Millions of people have spent at least a year paying into a contracted out pension, which is meant to replace the top-up element of the old state pension.
Those who were contracted out by their employer paid less in NI contributions for those years. Instead, the money went into their company pension. So they receive a smaller sum from the state, but a larger sum from their workplace pensions. Overall, they should be no worse off and some may be much better off thanks to the growth of their company pension plans over time.
‘The practice has been abolished for many years, but it does still affect people so it’s worth checking with the Future Pension Centre,’ she adds. Contracting out ended in 2016.
Delay the start date of your retirement
Another way you can boost your state pension is to delay when you start receiving it. It isn’t paid automatically when you hit state pension age – you have to claim it.
Morrissey says: ‘If you feel like you can do without it for a while then you can defer it and get a bigger state pension later.’
For every nine weeks that you defer getting your state pension, the amount you get increases by the equivalent of 1 per cent. So, defer for a year and your state pension income will increase by just under 5.8 per cent. That’s an extra £13.35 a week or £694.20 a year for life.
Deferring can also help from a tax-planning perspective. If you are still earning and paying high levels of income tax delaying when you take your state pension could help lower your tax bill and boost your income later in life.
There’s no limit to how long you can defer, but you need to consider your health and life expectancy when deciding if it is right for you. Someone who defers for a year will usually need to live around another 20 years for the higher payments to make up for the money they gave up.
For many people the state pension forms the foundations of their retirement income planning. But it is often the most neglected element.
Check for mistakes
Make sure that no errors have been made in calculating your state pension and that you are receiving everything you are due.
The Department for Work and Pensions has been repeatedly exposed for making a long list of errors over past decades and it has come to light in recent years that it has miscalculated hundreds of thousands of pensions.
The errors largely apply to women. In one major misstep, an estimated 210,000 mothers were missing out on up to £1.3 billion in state pension because credits for time spent at home looking after children or vulnerable people were not added to their NI records.
To check if you can make a claim, go to: tax.service.gov.uk/guidance/Check-if-you-are-eligible-to-apply-for-Home-Responsibilities-Protection.
A little bit of time spent reviewing your National Insurance record and checking ways you may be able to boost this essential income could result in thousands of extra pounds in retirement.
Waspi women in final payout push
Women representing the WASPI protest group outside the Royal Courts of Justice last year
Women hit by state pension age increases have launched a final push to win their long-fought bid for compensation amid growing hopes of a government U-turn.
Campaigners are calling on the public to inundate MPs with a total of a million letters over the next two months in an attempt to urge ministers to deliver payouts.
They warn the Government risks a ‘tsunami of national outrage’ if it ignores the plea.
Millions of women born in the 1950s, who say they were not sufficiently warned about the change in state pension age in 2010, could be awarded thousands of pounds each.
They claim they were required to rethink their retirement plans at relatively short notice and have suffered financial hardship as a result. The Government sparked fresh hope in November when it promised to reconsider its 2024 decision not to award compensation to the so-called ‘Waspi’ (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said the decision would be made by the end of February.
About 3.6million women stand to receive between £1,000 and £2,950 each if the campaign is successful.
But critics warn that the payouts would be unfairly shouldered by younger workers. Up to £10.5billion could be shelled out of tax coffers.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman ruled in March 2024 that the Waspi women were failed by the Government and were not told about the changes to their state pension age.
But in December 2024, the Government said it would not be granting compensation to them in spite of the recommendation.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer argued the taxpayer ‘simply can’t afford the tens of billions of pounds’ in payments. This was despite him having signed a pledge for ‘fair and fast compensation’ in 2022 while opposition leader.
Tens of thousands of emails making demands for compensation have already been sent to MPs, according to campaign organisers. The email template can be found on the campaign website at waspi.eaction.org.uk/waspi/.
Women born between April 6, 1950 and April 5, 1960 were affected when the pension age rose from 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2020.
By Jessica Beard