State pension divorce debits/credits revalued for 2026

If a court has shared your State Pension after a divorce or civil partnership dissolution, the number in your paperwork does not stand still. Prices change, so government updates these “debits” and “credits” to keep their value broadly in line with inflation. Ministers have now signed the State Pension Debits and Credits (Revaluation) Order 2025, setting the latest uplift for people reaching State Pension age from April 2026.

Let’s pin down the terms we all use in class. A pension sharing order moves a portion of one person’s pension rights to the other. In the State Pension system, the person giving up rights gets a debit and the recipient gets a credit. These are recorded as weekly amounts and sit alongside the rest of your new State Pension until you reach pensionable age, when they adjust your final award up (for credits) or down (for debits). HMRC’s manuals and DWP forms describe this process in plain language you can refer to with students.

How the update is decided matters for media literacy. The law says the Secretary of State reviews the general level of prices and then revalues these debits and credits. For 2025–26 the schedule uses 3.8%, reflecting annual CPI inflation to September 2025 reported by the Office for National Statistics. This is separate from the ‘triple lock’ used for the main State Pension amount.

Key dates help you teach timelines accurately. The Order was made on 25 November 2025, laid before Parliament on 27 November 2025, and takes effect on 22 December 2025 for advance claims by people who will reach pensionable age on or after 7 April 2026. It applies for all other purposes from 6 April 2026 and covers England, Wales and Scotland. It was signed by Torsten Bell, the minister responsible for pensions.

What this means for you if you’re approaching State Pension age: the percentage set by the last revaluation order before you reach pensionable age is the one that will be used on your debit or credit. For those reaching pensionable age on or after 7 April 2026, this 2025 Order is the relevant one, including if you make an advance claim. In Northern Ireland, separate rules may apply.

Teachers often ask for the actual figures to use in lessons. The schedule revalues amounts first set in earlier tax years by set percentages. In plain English: entries created in 2016–17 are increased by 39.2%; 2017–18 by 37.8%; 2018–19 by 33.8%; 2019–20 by 30.7%; 2020–21 by 28.5%; 2021–22 by 27.9%; 2022–23 by 24.0%; 2023–24 by 12.6%; 2024–25 by 5.6%; and 2025–26 by 3.8%. These percentages are applied to the original weekly debit or credit for that tax year.

Let’s try a quick classroom example. Suppose you were awarded a £10 per week state pension credit in 2018–19. With the 33.8% revaluation for that year, it becomes £13.38 per week before it’s combined with the rest of your State Pension at pensionable age. If instead you had a £10 debit from 2018–19, the same calculation would reduce your final State Pension by £13.38 per week.

Two simple guardrails help learners avoid common mix‑ups. First, debits and credits relate to the new State Pension created by the Pensions Act 2014, not to people who reached State Pension age before April 2016. Second, this revaluation is about price protection using CPI; it does not change how the main State Pension is uprated each year.

Policy context matters. The Department for Work and Pensions says revaluation happens because the earlier amounts did not keep their value against prices during the review period, so an update is needed to stay fair between the two parties to a pension share. No full impact assessment was produced because officials do not expect significant effects on the private, voluntary or public sectors.

Where to check next: if a divorce or dissolution is in play, both parties can request a State Pension valuation to support the court, using DWP’s BR20 form and guidance. For private and workplace pensions, HMRC’s manuals explain how sharing and attachment orders work, which you can use to build case studies for learners.