Women’s State Pension

The full level of the State Pension is £221.20 a week in the 2024/25 tax year, which gives an annual income of £11,502.40. This may be lower depending on when you reached State Pension age and your National Insurance record.

If you reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, you only needed 30 years of National Insurance contributions to qualify for the full amount.

You’ll need at least ten years of sufficient payments to get any State Pension under the current system, and at least 35 years to qualify for the full amount.

Under the old system, you only needed one year to be entitled to any State Pension.

The rules under the old system also meant that if you were married or in a civil partnership and you had not paid enough contributions to receive a basic State Pension yourself, you might be able to receive a pension based on your partner’s contributions. You could get up to 60% of your partner’s basic State Pension.

In both cases, you might be entitled to a higher amount if:

• you built up some Additional State Pension
• you put off taking your State Pension when you reached State Pension age. 

If you’re a married or divorced woman born before 1953, your past State Pension payments might have been incorrect. Find out whether this may apply to you in our guide State Pension correction exercise.

A State Pension forecast can tell you:

• how much State Pension you could get
• when you can get it
• how to increase it, if you can.

The amount you are forecast to get assumes you make or are credited with the maximum number of National Insurance credits in the years up to your State Pension age.

The quickest way to check your State Pension forecast is online at GOV.UKOpens in a new window

If you’ll reach your State Pension age in more than 30 days you can also:

• fill in the BR19 application form and send it by post. Get the BR19 form at GOV.UKOpens in a new window
• call the Future Pension Centre who will post the forecast to you. Contact details of the Future Pension Centre are at GOV.UKOpens in a new window

The online version of the forecast also gives you an opportunity to see a summary of your National Insurance contribution history.

Some people might not have the required amount of National Insurance contributions or credits to get the full State Pension, or qualify at all. This might be because of taking career breaks and/or taking care of dependants.

So it’s important to check how much State Pension you qualify for.

You might be able to get National Insurance credits if you’re not paying National Insurance, for example when you’re claiming benefits because you’re a carer, looking after a child under 12 or if you’ve decided to take a career break.

Credits can help to fill gaps in your National Insurance record, to make sure you qualify for certain benefits including the State Pension.

If you find that your National Insurance contribution history isn’t enough to give you a full State Pension, you might be able to pay voluntary contributions to increase your entitlement.