What is the state pension triple lock?

The state pension rises at the start of every financial year thanks to the triple lock.

Under the mechanism, millions will see their payments rise by 4.8% next April. The full new state pension will increase from £230.25 to £241.30 per week.

The triple lock, first introduced by the coalition government in 2010, is designed so pensioners can keep up with the cost of living.

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It does this by raising payments by whatever is highest out of inflation, wage growth or 2.5%.

But while the triple lock is beloved among older people, its viability has been called into question in recent years.

Supporters say the policy helps those in later life maintain a decent standard of living and that the state pension is low relative to other G7 countries.

Critics, on the other hand, point to the UK’s ageing population, saying it is unfair younger workers have to shoulder the cost for an increasing pool of retirees.

How much state pension do I get?

The state pension is a regular payment from the government that most people can claim when they reach state pension age (currently 66 years old). The exact amount you are entitled to depends on your record of National Insurance contributions (NICs).

You can see what your record looks like by using the government’s “check your state pension forecast” tool.

New state pension

Assuming you are a man born after 6 April 1951 or a woman born after 6 April 1953, you should fall under the new state pension. You will usually qualify to receive some money if you have 10 years of NICs, and get the full amount if you have 35 years of NICs.

If you are on the full amount of the new state pension, you will currently receive £230.25 per week (£11,973 a year).

Basic state pension

Men born before 6 April 1951 and women born before 6 April 1953 fall under the old system – the basic state pension. The eligibility rules are slightly different:

• Men born before 1945: You need a minimum of 11 qualifying years to get any state pension, and 44 years for the full amount.
• Men born between 1945 and 1951: You need a minimum of one qualifying year to get any basic state pension, and 30 years for the full amount.
• Women born before 1950: You need a minimum of 10 qualifying years to get any state pension, and 39 years for the full amount.
• Women born between 1950 and 1953: You need a minimum of one qualifying year to get any basic state pension, and 30 years for the full amount.

The full amount of this payment is currently £176.45 a week (£9,175.40 a year).

How much did the state pension increase by in 2024/25 and how much will it rise next year?

The state pension increased by 4.1% in April, meaning someone on the full new amount saw their weekly payments rise to £230.25, worth £11,973 a year.

Someone on the full basic state pension saw their payments increase by the same percentage, rising to £176.45 per week, worth £9,175 a year.

Under the triple lock, next year the state pension will rise by 4.8%, as average wage growth between May and July (including bonuses) was 4.8%.

This means someone on the full new state pension will see their payments go up to £241.30 a week, or £12,547 a year.

Someone on the full basic state pension will see their weekly amount increase to £184.91, or £9,615 a year.

If you don’t receive the full amounts, you will still get a 4.8% pay lift. For example, if you are on a new state pension and currently receiving £200 a week, you will start getting £209.60 a week from next April.

How much does the triple lock cost the UK?

Under the current system, the state pension is one of the UK’s biggest outlays.

In 2025/26, the government has estimated that it will spend £175 billion on benefits for pensioners, with £146 billion of this being spent directly on the state pension.

The cost of the triple lock specifically is expected to reach £15.5 billion per year by 2029/30.

What is the future of the triple lock?

The government has pledged to keep the triple lock in place until the end of this parliament, currently set to end in 2029.

However, the mechanism has been called into question due to its increasing cost.

The state pension has increased in value by 89% since the implementation of the triple lock in 2011, almost 30% more than inflation (60%) and over 20% more than earnings (66%), according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) says the triple lock has pushed up spending on the state pension so that it now costs the government £12 billion more per year than if it had risen in line with average earnings since 2011.

The OBR estimates spending on the state pension will rise by around £80 billion in today’s terms by the 2070s.

There have been calls to scrap the triple lock and replace it with alternatives.

The IFS has called for a double-lock system, which would uprate the state pension in line with whichever is highest out of average wage growth or inflation.

Sir Steve Webb, the former pensions minister who was in post when the triple lock came into force, defended the policy in a recent episode of MoneyWeek Talks.

Webb told MoneyWeek’s digital editor Kalpana Fitzpatrick: “I became pensions minister in 2010. But in the previous 30 years, the state pension had been falling in value relative to what people earn, so it just went up with inflation most of the time.

“But the problem with that is if you earn and earn and then stop earning, then the thing you fall onto when you stop earning needs to be connected to some proportion of what you were earning.

“Otherwise, you just fall off a cliff and your standard of living crashes.

“So, the state pension needs to be pegged to a proportion of what people are earning and for 30 years, [prior to the triple lock] that had not happened.”

Webb, now a partner at consultancy firm Lane Clark & Peacock, argued that before the triple lock, the state pension was getting worse relative to what people were used to before they retired.

“So, the point of more generous indexation post 2010 was to undo 30 years of damage.

“I’m not embarrassed or ashamed; I am proud of the fact that the state pension has been over-indexed, so we link it now to the best of growth in wages, growth in prices or 2.5%. This has nudged up the state pension a bit, relative to the average wage.”

Will tax soon be due on the state pension?

With state pension payments creeping up each year, they are getting closer and closer to the top of the tax-free personal allowance, which has been frozen at £12,570 since 2021. The personal allowance is set to remain at this level until 2028.

The current full new state pension is worth £11,973 a year, which means someone relying solely on the new state pension and receiving the full amount could feasibly end up having to pay income tax on within a couple of years.

Calculations by wealth management firm Quilter forecast retirees on just the full new state pension could have to pay £200 in income tax by 2029/30, if thresholds remain frozen until the end of the decade.

Meanwhile, those with additional incomes on top of the state pension are already seeing more and more of their cash eroded in tax due to frozen thresholds.