Usually you do not have to apply for your new state pension. You will receive a pension letter from the DWP no later than 2 months before your state pension age.

If for any reason you do not receive a notification, you can start an online claim here. Alternatively, you can use the contacts below:

Call the Pension Service to besent a form

Telephone: 0800 731 0469

Textphone: 0800 731 0464

Relay UK (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 then 0800 731 0469

British Sign Language (BSL) video relay service if you’re on a computer - find out how to use the service on mobile or tablet

Welsh language: 0800 731 0453

Welsh language textphone: 0800 731 0456

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm (except public holidays)

Find out about call charges

Send your completed form to:

Pension Service 8

Post Handling Site B

Wolverhampton

WV98 1AF

The qualifying years on your National Insurance record affect how much State Pension you get. 

If you have a Government Gateway account, you can check your State Pension forecast to see what you might get when you reach State Pension age.

You’ll need 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record to get any new State Pension.

A qualifying year is one in which you were:

• working and made National Insurance contributions
  
  

• getting National Insurance credits for example if you were unemployed, ill or a parent or carer
  
  

• paying voluntary National Insurance contributions

You might also qualify if you’ve lived or worked abroad or paid reduced rate National Insurance for married women.

Your first payment will usually be within five weeks of reaching State Pension age. It will cover the period from when you reached State Pension age. 

You’ll then get a full payment every four weeks after that.

The day your State Pension is paid depends on the last two digits of your National Insurance number:

00 to 19 = Monday

20 to 39 = Tuesday

40 to 59 = Wednesday

60 to 79 = Thursday

80 to 99 = Friday

You might inherit part of your deceased partner’s Additional State Pension if your marriage or civil partnership with them began before 6 April 2016 and one of the following applies:

• your partner reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016
  
  

• they died before 6 April 2016 but would have reached State Pension age on or after that date
  
  

It will be paid with your State Pension.

If you were contracted out of the Additional State Pension, some of your National Insurance contributions were either:

• lower than people who were not contracted out

• paid into another pension, for example a workplace or private pension

All contracting out stopped on 5 April 2016.

If you were contracted out before 6 April 2016, you might not get the full rate new State Pension of £221.20 a week.

You might not get any Additional State Pension, or get a small amount, from the time you were contracted out.

You still get the basic State Pension if you were contracted out.

If you’re on a low income you can apply for Pension Credit.

If you reached State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016:

f you were contracted out before 6 April 2016, you might not get the full rate new State Pension of £221.20 a week.

An amount is taken off your new State Pension if you were contracted out.

If you’re getting more than £221.20 a week and you paid into the Additional State Pension before 2016 and would have got more State Pension under the old rules, you’ll get a ‘protected payment’. 

This is paid on top of the full rate of new State Pension.