Why your state pension increase in 2026 might be lower than you were expecting

Were you disappointed by the uplift?

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Published: May 21, 2026 at 1:22 PM

If you've used a calculator to check the April increase in your state pension, you may have been disappointed to see a lower uplift than you were expecting, with the increase less than the promised 4.8% in line with earnings.

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The “triple lock” means the pension is increased by earnings, prices, or 2.5% – whichever is the highest in the previous October report. So with earnings up 4.8%, and prices 3.8%, you might expect your pension to be 4.8% more than it was a month ago. But in many cases it will not be.

That’s because the state pension is in two parts. The basic “old” state pension and the standard rate of the new one will rise by the triple lock percentage of 4.8%. So they increased from £176.45 a week to £184.90 and from £230.25 a week to £241.30. But all the extras paid with these pensions are not covered by the triple lock and rise only with inflation. So any extras you get will increase by 3.8%, not by 4.8%.

The extras added onto the old pension can include additional pension – called the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (Serps) or State Second Pension – and Graduated Retirement Benefit (GRB) paid on earnings from 1961 to 1975.

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Extras on the new state pension are called “protected amounts” – related to what your Serps etc would have been. And both new and old pensions will have extra added if you claimed it well after you became entitled. All those extras rise by inflation, not by earnings. So if you get some of them, your total pension will have gone up by a percentage somewhere between 3.8% and 4.8%.

May is the first month that most of the nearly 13 million state pensioners see the full effect of the annual rise. Some who get their pensions paid weekly will have received it sooner. But the great majority, whose state pension is paid four-weekly in arrears, will have to wait for the week of 11 May to feel the full effects of the rise, which began from the first payday after 6 April. (You can get your pension sooner by changing payments from four-weekly to weekly by calling 0800 731 0469.)

Meanwhile, about 450,000 pensioners get no rise, as they live abroad in a country where increases are not paid.

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