For many people, it provides the foundation of their retirement income. Yet some pensioners receive less than the maximum - and may be able to top it up.
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New figures obtained by BFIA show that nearly a quarter of those who began claiming the state pension in the 2024/25 tax year did not receive the full amount.
A Freedom of Information request to the Department for Work and Pensions found that 776,330 people started receiving the new state pension during that financial year. Of those, 591,530 - 76% - qualified for the maximum weekly rate of 221.20 then in effect. The remaining 24%, or about 184,800 people, received less.
In 2024/25, around 16% of people who began claiming the new state pension - 124,860 in total - received less than 200 a week. Of those, just over 26,400 got under 100 weekly, representing about 3% of new recipients that tax year.
Of these, 349,490 people - 71% - received the full new state pension, worth 230.25 a week in 2025/26. The remaining 140,240, or 29%, apparently did not.
Sarah Pennells, a consumer finance specialist at the retirement firm Royal London, said the full state pension figure can be misleading: approximately one in four pensioners who claimed last year received less.
Steve Webb, a former pensions minister and now a partner at pension consultants LCP, said: "Some people will always receive less than the full rate."
Sometimes that happens because they spent years paying reduced National Insurance contributions after contracting out, or because their record contains gaps from periods when they neither worked nor received NI credits.
How to top up your state pension
Your NI record determines how much state pension you can receive.
You need at least 10 qualifying years to receive the minimum new state pension amount, currently 68.90 a week. To qualify for the full amount - 241.30 a week in 2026/27 - you need 35 qualifying years.
For people receiving the old State Pension, both the number of qualifying years and the weekly rate are different.
A State Pension forecast can show whether your National Insurance (NI) record has any gaps.
If you receive less than the full amount, you might be able to increase your pension by filling those gaps with NI credits or voluntary contributions.
Claim credits
Before paying National Insurance contributions (NICs), check whether you qualify for free credits.
Specific Adult Childcare Credits may be available if you have looked after someone else's child.
You may claim these credits before or after you begin receiving your state pension.
Grandparents and other relatives can qualify if they cared for a child younger than 12 while the child's parents were working and receiving Child Benefit.
Parents who pay National Insurance through employment build qualifying years on their own records. If they do not need the Child Benefit credits, those credits can be transferred.
You may apply for credits covering caring responsibilities taken on since April 2011, provided you were at least 16 but below State Pension age when you cared for the child and were resident in the UK.
To apply, complete the CA9176 form on gov.uk, print the completed form, and mail it to HMRC at the address provided on the form.
Buy missing National Insurance years
If you cannot claim credits and want to fill gaps in your National Insurance record, you may pay voluntary Class 3 National Insurance contributions (NICs). This remains possible before or after you start claiming your state pension.
For the 2026/27 tax year, Class 3 contributions amount to 18.40 per week, or 956.80 annually.
You can fill gaps in your NI record going back six tax years, but each year's deadline falls on 5 April. A gap from the 2025/26 tax year, for example, can be filled until 5 April 2032; for 2020/21, the deadline is 5 April 2027.
Class 3 contributions can be purchased through the gov.uk State Pension forecast tool if you're below State Pension age. You can also use your Personal Tax Account or call by phone. More information is available at gov.uk.
Some people have gaps in their NI record because they were not working or earned too little in a particular year. Others were contracted out under the old state pension system, which applied before 2016.
If you were contracted out, more of your National Insurance contributions went into a private pension rather than the state pension.
That may mean you do not qualify for the full new state pension. You can increase your entitlement by paying voluntary contributions for gaps in the previous six tax years.
Charlene Young, AJ Bell's head of technical, said that although contracting out ended in 2016, three quarters of people reaching state pension age between 2016 and 2036 will at some point have belonged to a contracted-out scheme during their working lives. This is especially true of people in final-salary or career-average schemes.
Is topping up your state pension always worthwhile?
Not necessarily.
Buying extra qualifying years can increase your pension, but it may also take you past a benefit threshold and leave you ineligible for support. And if you are unlikely to live long, paying to fill gaps in your NI record may provide little financial return.
If you've reached state pension age, contact the Pension Service and ask whether paying voluntary contributions would benefit you.
Webb of LCP said two groups should think carefully before paying to fill gaps in their National Insurance record: people who may rely on benefits in retirement, since a larger pension could reduce those payments, and people who sadly have a short life expectancy.
He added that anyone who reached pension age before 2016 would find it difficult to increase their pension, since the deadline for voluntary contributions had already passed.
A financial adviser may be able to help determine whether paying more to raise your state pension entitlement makes financial sense.
You can also receive a larger state pension by waiting to claim it after reaching state pension age.
What to do if you have a low state pension and are on a low income
A small state pension may make you eligible for Pension Credit. Hundreds of thousands of pensioners are thought to qualify but do not claim it.
Pension Credit has two parts. Its main purpose is to supplement a low income.
The average claim is worth 4,500 a year, and receiving it can also open the door to other support, including Cold Weather Payments and the Warm Home Discount.
Pension Credit can be claimed in the four months before you reach state pension age. Applications made after that can be backdated by no more than three months.
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