Where £241.30 comes from, and where our number diverges from yours
Reconciliation: our calc vs your gov.uk forecast
Three composite personas, drawn from typical UK pre-retirement shapes. Numbers are modelled at 2026/27 rates1. Our line is what this site's calculator returns; gov.uk is what the visitor reports back from their forecast service2.
Why: Our flat 60% COPE approximation overshoots Joan's actual COPE because the DWP uses her exact Guaranteed Minimum Pension figure from the NHS scheme, which works out lower than the 60%-of-£6.89 planning rule we apply per contracted-out year.
Why: No COPE in play and no transitional starting-amount complexity, so the pro-rata new-SP rule reduces to (32 effective years × £6.89). The DWP forecast matches our number to the penny. This is the cleanest case for our calculator.
Why: Number matches, but our site cannot tell Mara her actual in-payment amount until the April uprating lands in her DWP letter. Triple-lock-projected figures are correct in steady state; sequence and rounding inside an in-payment year are not modelled.
The single rule that drives every number on this site
Weekly forecast = min(35, qualifying years + voluntary years) × £6.89, minus a COPE adjustment, capped at £241.30. £6.89 is just £241.30 divided by 35 - the headline rate per qualifying year. Every state-pension number on this site is a rearrangement of that one equation, applied to the 2026/27 DWP rate sheet3 and the new State Pension calculation rules4. Where the maths gets messy is the starting-amount transition for anyone who has any NI history before 6 April 2016, and that is where we deliberately defer to the DWP - see the personas above.
Where this site is deliberately weaker than gov.uk
Three places. First, COPE: our 60%-of-£6.89-per-contracted-out-year planning rule is honest about being a rule of thumb. The DWP knows every contracted-out scheme's Guaranteed Minimum Pension to the penny and we don't. If COPE matters to your number, gov.uk wins5. Second, SPA precision: we resolve to the year, not the day. The new April 2026 to May 2028 SPA transition from 66 to 67 makes a day-precise SPA worth a few weeks of pension, so use gov.uk's SPA service for the actual date6. Third, in-payment claims: if you're already drawing, your bank statement is more current than anything we can model.
When this changes
The numbers on this site move on three specific events: the Autumn Budget (any rate-sheet preview), the April uprating (triple lock applied to the headline figures), and any DWP-published SPA review outcome. We do not republish on news cycles or media speculation about the triple lock; we wait for the rate sheet. The next scheduled refresh follows the Autumn Budget 2026. Changes are listed on the updates page.
What we don't do
No financial advice. No affiliate links to pension providers, IFAs, or buy-back paid-help services. No data collection - the calculator runs in your browser and nothing leaves the page. Treat this site as the workings; treat gov.uk as the answer.
Written and maintained by Oliver Wakefield-Smith, Founder, Digital Signet. Reach me via the about page.