It’s common knowledge that the state pension has an annual increase every April, but I suspect that very few of you fully understand the mechanisms involved in calculating the annual rise percentage, which is normally announced in November, for the following year.
Unfortunately, whilst the headline percentage increase for 2026/27 of 4.8%, was splashed all over the news media on 27th November 2025, the underlying small print of the Treasury announcement received very little publicity. However, if you dig down below the headlines and examine the page after page of small print, a somewhat different story is revealed.
The ‘triple lock’
The State Pension increases in April each year, based on a system known as the triple lock. This means the increase will match the highest of three percentages:
- How much general living costs have risen by (inflation), based on the previous September’s Consumer Price Index (CPI)
- The average wage increase from May to July of the previous year
- Or 2.5%.
The ‘triple lock’ was introduced in 2011 and is the government’s golden rule to try to ensure that state pensioners don’t get left behind their working brethren. It has always been trumpeted as a guaranteed protection for the value, in spending terms, of your state pension.
However, digging below the headline announcements reveals that in a lot of cases not all of your pension is protected. So today I will explain how the triple lock really works and why a sizeable number of pensioners are not getting the full percentage increase on the whole of their state pension.
Why you may not be getting 4.8% in April 2026
Misleadingly, the headline percentage increase does not apply to your whole of the state pension, which is a very common misunderstanding among retirees. You might have read that the pension is going up by 4.8% but when you get your notification from the Department for Work & Pensions and check your payments, you may be shocked to see that you’re getting a smaller rise.
This is because the triple lock only applies to the core state pension, it does not apply to any of the add-ons, which include:
- The additional state pension (SERPS or State Second Pension)
- Any “Protected payments” (Top-ups under the old rules) or
- Deferred pension uplifts
These elements only rise by CPI inflation, which was 3.2% when the figures were announced last November. So, if earnings growth is high but inflation is low, these parts of your pension will lag behind. For many pensioners, the additional state pension elements form a significant part of their overall state pension income.
What can you do?
Firstly, don’t just assume you will get the full pension, you should check your national insurance (NI) record. This is because, to get the maximum new state pension, you will need 35 qualifying years of NI contributions and if you have fewer than 10 years, you will get nothing.
Also, data recently analysed from the Department for Work and Pensions showed that in 2023, only half of all pensioners entitled to get the new state pension actually received the full pension. So, you must check your state pension contributions on the government website and if you have gaps in your record from the last six years, you may be able to “buy” these missing years.
It is even worse for those of you who’ve bought a little holiday home in the sun to while away your golden years. So, if this is your plan, be careful, as if you move to a country without a reciprocal social security agreement with the UK such as Australia, your pension is frozen at the rate it was when you left and you’ll never get a triple lock increase again.
However, If you retire in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, or to a country that has a social security agreement with the UK that allows for increases to the state pension, you’ll receive the same increase to your state pension as people living in the UK.
Deferring your state pension
If you defer claiming your pension, you get extra cash when you eventually take it. You can defer even if you’ve already started taking it. This apples to anyone who reached pension age after April 2016.
You will get an uplift of approximately 5.8% for each year you defer and if you reached pension age before April 2016, the uplift is a more generous 10.4%. But be warned, the extra cash you get from deferring is not triple locked and only rises with CPI inflation.
Is the triple lock in danger?
Yes, is the quick answer, as it’s increasingly expensive for all governments. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) projects that the triple lock could cost the taxpayer an additional £40bn a year by 2050 compared to linking increases to earnings alone.
Whilst the Labour government has committed to keeping it for this parliament, the long-term pressure on public finances means nothing is guaranteed forever. Also, the pressure on all future governments is only likely to get worse because of increased life expectancy The best way to protect yourself is to maximise your pension savings and, if you can, make sure your national insurance record is complete asap.
Is there a danger of the state pension going?
Probably yes, in the long-term. This is because the UK population has an increasing percentage of retirees. If you combine this with a smaller number of working adults paying tax to help fund the state pension, it is unsustainable in the long-term.
This is why the last government introduced mandatory auto-enrolment pensions in 2012. The scheme requires employers to automatically enrol eligible workers into a workplace pension, with mandatory contributions from both employer and employee, helping people save for retirement.
Accountant’s view
I fully expect that at some point in the not-too-distant future, the government of the day will gradually increase the scope of auto-enrolment to replace the bulk of the state pension, probably with a sweetener of a state contribution to your pension pot.
Whilst I don’t expect the state pension to be abolished completely, it is likely however that it will gradually just be there as a social security benefit to assist the most disadvantaged in our society.
Finally, if you would like to look at HMG’s proposed benefit and pension rates for 2026 to 2027, go to:
