UK state pension protected payment rises 39% in 2026

If you built up extra state pension before 2016, there’s a clear update. The government has set the revaluation for that extra bit-the “protected payment”-at 39.0% for people reaching State Pension age on or after 7 April 2026. The Order was laid before Parliament on 27 November 2025 and is the legal trigger for this change.

Let’s pin down the term. Under the new State Pension, your “starting amount” was worked out at 6 April 2016. If that starting amount was higher than the full new State Pension at the time, the difference became your protected payment. Not everyone has one, but if you do, it sits on top of your new State Pension.

Two similar words can be confusing here. Revaluation is what happens to a protected payment before you claim-it updates the 2016 figure to reflect price growth up to your State Pension age. Uprating is what happens each April after you’re already being paid. The full new State Pension is uprated by the triple lock, while protected payments are uprated by CPI only.

Timing matters. This Order comes into force on 22 December 2025 for making awards on advance claims by people who will reach State Pension age on or after 7 April 2026, and on 6 April 2026 for all other purposes. It applies in England, Wales and Scotland. In short: if your State Pension age falls on or after 7 April 2026, this 39% revaluation will be built into any protected payment you have.

What does the 39% represent? It’s the measured increase in the general level of prices over the review period set in law from April 2016. It does not add 39% to your whole State Pension-only to any protected payment you hold from the 2016 starting calculation. That’s why many people will see no change from this rule, because many don’t have a protected payment.

Here’s a worked example to make it concrete. Imagine your protected payment, calculated as at 6 April 2016, was £20.00 a week. With a 39% revaluation at your State Pension age in April 2026, that part would become £27.80 a week. It would then be uprated by CPI each April in payment, separate from the triple lock applied to the full new State Pension.

If your starting amount back in 2016 was the same as, or lower than, the full new State Pension, you won’t have a protected payment at all. In that case, the revaluation described here doesn’t apply to you, and your State Pension follows the usual rules: it’s based on your National Insurance record and uprated each year once in payment.

What should you do now? If you’re within a year of State Pension age, get a forecast on GOV.UK and check whether a protected payment appears on your record. If it does, and your State Pension age is on or after 7 April 2026, the award you receive will reflect the 39% revaluation. If it doesn’t, you can focus on the standard State Pension figure and any steps to fill gaps in your NI record.

For completeness, ministers have confirmed in official documents that protected payments in payment rise with CPI, not the triple lock, and the triple lock applies to the full new State Pension. The revaluation set out here is a one‑off calculation at your claim point, while uprating is the annual adjustment after that. The Order was signed on 25 November 2025 by the Pensions Minister and laid before Parliament on 27 November 2025.