Website of the UK government

How much you will get?

If you choose to put off claiming your State Pension you can claim extra State Pension instead. You must put off your claim for at least five weeks.

For every five weeks you put off claiming you can earn an increase to your State Pension of one per cent. This is equivalent to about 10.4 per cent extra for every full year you put off claiming. You can benefit by putting off claiming your State Pension for as little as five weeks.

Extra State Pension is paid on top of your normal weekly State Pension. It continues for as long as you are getting State Pension. Extra State Pension is increased each April in line with increases to your State Pension.

Claiming other benefits

If you defer your pension and choose extra State Pension, it will be treated like any other income when working out other benefits you may be receiving. These include:

• Pension Credit
• Housing Benefit
• Council Tax Benefit
• Tax credits

If you have put off claiming your State Pension and there are days where you get other benefits, then these days will not count towards any extra State Pension.

These benefits include:

• Carer's Allowance
• Contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance
• Incapacity Benefit
• Severe Disablement Allowance
• Widow's Pension
• Widowed Mother's Allowance
• Unemployability Supplement or any type of State Pension

An increase in any of these benefits paid to someone else for you will not count towards extra State Pension. This does not apply if you are not living with the person getting the increase, unless they are your husband or wife.

Days that you receive Graduated Retirement Benefit or Shared Additional Pension will count towards an extra State Pension.

Also, you will not build up extra State Pension for any days that you would not have been allowed to get a State Pension even if you had been claiming it. For example, if you are in prison.

Tax

Your extra State Pension is counted as income for tax purposes in the same way as your State Pension.

Inheritance

If you die while you are still putting off your State Pension, your widow, widower or surviving civil partner may be entitled to extra State Pension when they claim their own State Pension.

Your widow, widower or surviving civil partner may get extra State Pension added to their own State Pension after your death. This could happen if you had already claimed your State Pension and chosen extra State Pension before your death.

Before April 2010

Until April 2010, widowers and surviving civil partners have to be of State Pension age or over to be entitled to extra State Pension.

The amount of extra State Pension payable to a widow, widower or surviving civil partner will be based on:

• all of the deceased’s basic State Pension
• between 50 and 100 per cent of any additional State Pension (depending on the date the deceased reached, or would have reached State Pension age)

If you are a woman who is widowed while you are still under State Pension age, you will not be able to get extra State Pension based on your late husband’s contributions if you remarry before you reach State Pension age. Similar rules will apply to widowers and survivng civil partners from April 2010.

Claiming a lump sum payment

If you put off claiming your State Pension, you can choose to claim a lump sum payment instead of extra State Pension.

Follow the link below for information on the lump sum payment.

• Claiming a lump sum payment

• Contracting out of the additional State Pension