Will You Get £13,000 A Year When You Stop Working?

The current state pension is soon likely to top £13,000 a year.

Yet one in eight people surveyed by the UK tax authority have never checked how much money they are forecast to receive.

Many people on the old basic state pension may receive a top-up called the additional state pension.

The flat-rate state pension - for those who reached state pension age after April 2016 - is £241. 30 a week (£12,547. 60 a year).

Workers pay National Insurance (NI) contributions.

In general, you need 35 years of qualifying contributions to get a full state pension.

It's possible to boost your contribution history with voluntary payments. Since April 2025, you have only been able to make payments for the previous six years. This is one reason why it is important to check your state pension forecast well before you retire, experts say.

You can see what you are forecast to receive by downloading the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) app or using the official online state pension forecast webpage. To get a state pension, you will need to prove your identity using official photo ID. Never click on a link sent in an unsolicited email or text message, even if it looks official, as it could be a scam.

For more general information about tax and pensions, HMRC has launched a Tax Confident website, while the government-funded, independent Money Helper website has a free retirement guidance tool to walk you through the options. The most common reason for not checking a state pension forecast was feeling that retirement was still too far away to think about, a recent survey of 5,000 consumers by HMRC found.

Losing track of pension pots from previous jobs and concerns about how career breaks might affect their entitlement were also frequent responses. People aged 45-54 were the most likely to have never checked.