State pensioners under 76 given £11 extra after triple lock change | Personal Finance | Finance
New state pensioners have been handed an £11 weekly boost (Image: Getty)
New state pensioners are being handed an £11 a week boost following a triple lock change which started in April.
New state pensioners are those who hit retirement age from April 2016, when they would have been aged 66, so they will have been aged 76 or under as of April 2026, but are paid a different rate to older state pensioners on the basic state pension.
From April 6, 2026, the totals for both the basic and new state pensions are being increased by 4.8% thanks to a triple lock change.
The triple lock is the legal mechanism by which pensions are automatically uprated each tax year, in a bid to protect their spending power. They must go up by one of three metrics (hence the triple); inflation, wage growth or a flat 2.5%, whichever is highest.
This year, wage growth beat inflation so it was the metric chosen to uprate pensions.
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From April 6, the rate for older state pensioners increased from £176.45 to £184.90 per week, an £8.45 boost, while new state pensioners saw their pension go up from £230.25 to £241.30 per week, an increase of £11.05 per week.
These are the maximum figures for a state pensioner with a full National Insurance record, which is usually 30 to 35 years of working at least 20 hours per week.
The annual incomes generated by the new state pension and the old state pension will be £12,547 and £9,614 per year, not including any additional supplements such as the Additional Pension that older state pensioners may have qualified for, or Pension Credit, which can be used to boost your income if it’s lower than £238 per week.
Crucially, both of these figures remain below the £12,570 Personal Allowance threshold, meaning state pensioners with only these incomes will not lose any of it to tax.
From 2027, all new state pensioners would likely need to pay some income tax because the next triple lock will take the new state pension above the threshold, but Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced a special exemption from tax for those who only have the state pension income.
At the same time, the age at which retirees claim their pension benefits from the state started rising for millions of Brits from April 6 and will continue to do so until April 2028.
It’s being phased in over three tax years to prevent pensioners from suddenly facing an abrupt one-year wait.
Some will begin to qualify for their state pension at age 66 and 1 month, increasing in one-month increments, up to those who will get theirs at age 66 and 11 months, until the transition to age 67 is complete in three years’ time.
