DWP to send payments up to £965 to state pensioners before June | Personal Finance | Finance

State pensioners will receive early payments of up to £965 this month due to the Bank Holiday. If your payment is due on the May Bank Holiday, which falls on Monday, May 25, DWP will adjust your payments to the previous Friday, May 22.

This is to ensure you get paid before the long weekend, because banks and DWP offices are closed on the Monday. You can figure out your payment dates by checking the last two digits of your National Insurance number. Those with numbers ending 00 to 19 are typically paid on Mondays, so these payments will be brought forward.

Retirees with NI numbers ending in 20 to 39 are usually paid on Tuesdays, 40 to 59 on Wednesdays, 60 to 79 on Thursdays and 80 to 99 on Fridays.

Those aged 66 or above on the full new State Pension will receive the maximum amount of £965.20, made up from four weekly payments of £241.30.

This rate increased by 4.8% in April in line with the average earnings, making the annual income now approximately £12,547.

However, payments can be lower if you have gaps in your National Insurance, which means you are not eligible for the full amount. You can top up these payments to prepare for retirement so you can get the higher payments.

Those on the full basic State Pension will be paid a lower amount, since their weekly payments are £184.90, which increased from £176.45 in April.

Brits over the age of 66 can be expected to receive the money, though the state pension age is set to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028.

Fears are mounting that the pension age could rise even further, as the Government’s graples with the spiralling Triple Lock commitment, which ensures payments rise by either the average earnings growth, CPI inflation, or 2.5% – whichever is highest.

The increased expenditure as a result of uprating the State Pension and pensioner benefits in 2026/27 was estimated to be £6billion, according to the Government.

This alone outweighed the cost of uprating both working-age benefits, at a cost of £3billion, and disability and carers benefits, estimated at £2billion.

In July, Richard Hughes, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), said triple lock was “one of a series of age-related pressures that pushes public spending upwards steadily over a number of years”.

He warned that “public finances are in an unsustainable position in the long run” with pensions, health care, and age-related spending increasing.

It came after the OBR said the triple lock was projected to cost three times the original estimate by 2030 with an ageing population, at £15.5billion annually.