New vs basic State Pension
The rule, in one line
If you reached State Pension Age on or after 6 April 2016, you are on the new State Pension (headline £241.30 per week). If you reached SPA before 6 April 2016, you are on the basic State Pension (headline £184.90 per week, often topped up by SERPS or S2P additional pension)1.
Headline numbers side by side
Pick this if
- New State Pension - your SPA falls in April 2016 or later. Anyone born in 1951 (men) or 1953 (women) onwards is almost always on this scheme2.
- Basic State Pension - your SPA was before 6 April 2016. This is everyone already drawing pension on that date, plus some early-claimers in the first weeks of April 2016.
- Transitional (rare) - if you reached SPA in the first few days of April 2016, the DWP applied a transitional calculation that took the higher of basic + additional pension or a starting amount under the new rules. Check your DWP letter, don't guess.
Worked example: same person, two schemes
Consider a 1950-born man who hit SPA at 65 in early 2015, with 30 qualifying years and a modest SERPS top-up. He is on basic State Pension: £184.90/wk in 2026/27 plus his SERPS additional pension, paid as a single amount in his DWP letter.
Same career, same 30 years, but a different birthday - born 1958, hit SPA in 2024. She is on the new State Pension. 30 of 35 years gives a pro-rata of (30/35) × £241.30 = £206.83 per week, minus any COPE for pre-2016 contracted-out years. No additional-pension top up on the new scheme - the headline figure is the whole figure.
Why this matters for buy-back decisions
On the new scheme each post-2016 qualifying year adds about £6.89 per week (£241.30 ÷ 35). On the basic scheme each qualifying year up to 30 adds about £6.16 per week (£184.90 ÷ 30). The Class 3 voluntary cost is the same on either scheme, so the new-scheme payback is slightly faster. Most people reading this site are on the new scheme; if you are on basic, our buy-back maths still applies but the per-year uplift is the basic-scheme rate.