The UK State Pension pays up to £241.30 a week for 2026/27 — here’s how to check your forecast online in minutes.
What You’ll Need Before You Start
- A Government Gateway user ID and password (if you’ve ever filed a Self Assessment return online, you likely already have one)
- Your date of birth, to confirm your State Pension age
- About 10 minutes, if you need to set up a Government Gateway account from scratch
How to Check Your State Pension Forecast: Step by Step
- Go to gov.uk/check-state-pension
- Click Start now
- Sign in with your Government Gateway ID and password — or click Create sign in details if you don’t have one yet, then verify your email with the code sent to you
- Once signed in, your forecast displays automatically, showing:
- Your current weekly and annual State Pension amount based on contributions so far
- The maximum amount you could reach by continuing to work
- Your State Pension age
- How many qualifying National Insurance years you have, and how many more you need
You can also access the same forecast through the HMRC app if you’d rather check from your phone.
If You’re More Than 30 Days From State Pension Age
If your State Pension age is still some way off, you have two additional options beyond the online service:
- By post: fill in the BR19 application form from gov.uk and send it in — allow several weeks for a response
- By phone: call the Future Pension Centre on 0800 731 0175 (or 0800 731 0176), and they’ll post your forecast to you
Understanding Your National Insurance Record
- Minimum to get anything: 10 qualifying NI years
- Minimum for the full new State Pension: 35 qualifying years
- Each year on your record is a tax year (6 April to 5 April), not a calendar year, and is marked as full, “year not full,” or with a gap
- Years where you earned below the lower earnings limit don’t count, and self-employed years where Class 2 NI wasn’t paid won’t count either
Why Your Forecast Might Be Lower Than Expected
- Contracted-out deduction (COPE): if you were in a workplace or personal pension that was contracted out of the additional State Pension before April 2016, your forecast includes a deduction reflecting that
- Gaps in your NI record: missing years from unemployment, low earnings, or time abroad reduce your total
- Still building toward 35 years: if you’re still working and on track to reach 35 qualifying years before pension age, gaps now may not matter later — the forecast tool tells you specifically whether filling a gap would actually help
Should You Pay Voluntary Contributions to Fill a Gap?
The forecast service will tell you directly whether buying back a specific year through voluntary Class 3 National Insurance contributions would actually raise your weekly amount — don’t assume it automatically will. If you’re still working and already on track to reach 35 years before State Pension age, paying to fill an old gap may not increase your pension at all.
Your State Pension Age Is Rising
State Pension age is currently 66, and is scheduled to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028, then to 68 between 2044 and 2046 under current law. Your personal forecast shows your exact date based on your date of birth — a State Pension age calculator won’t give you as precise or current a figure as checking your own forecast directly.