Check your State Pension forecast or Social Security statement: what the numbers mean and what you can still change

If you only do one money task this year, make it this one. Both the UK and US governments will show you, for free and in your own name, roughly what the state will pay you in retirement and when. It takes about twenty minutes.

This is general information, not financial advice; a regulated adviser can look at your own situation.

The UK: your State Pension forecast

The State Pension is the UK’s government pension (Social Security is the US equivalent). Gov.uk’s “Check your State Pension forecast” service tells you, in its own words, “how much State Pension you could get”, “when you can get it” and whether and how you could increase it, “for example, by paying to fill gaps”.

You sign in with Government Gateway details and may be asked to prove who you are with “photo ID like a passport or driving licence”. If you would rather not do it online, you can send a BR19 form by post. You cannot use the service if you are already receiving your State Pension or have deferred it.

Reading the UK numbers

The weekly figure. The full rate of the new State Pension is £241.30 a week. Your forecast shows what you are on course for now and what you could reach by continuing to work or pay contributions. The gap between those two numbers is the thing you can still change.

The date. State Pension age is currently 66, rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028 and, under current law, to 68 between 2044 and 2046. Gov.uk notes that “the State Pension age is regularly reviewed, so the results of this tool may change in the future”.

Qualifying years. You need 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record to get anything at all, and if your record started after April 2016 you need 35 for the full amount. If you were “contracted out” before 2016 (common in older workplace and public-sector schemes) you may need more than 35.

Filling the gaps

Your National Insurance record, also on Gov.uk, shows year by year “what you’ve paid”, which years do not count, whether voluntary contributions would help and what they would cost.

Gaps are common: years abroad, caring, part-time work, self-employment. Voluntary contributions let you buy back some of them, but usually only for the past six years, with a deadline of 5 April each year; Gov.uk’s example is that you have until 5 April 2032 to fill the 2025 to 2026 tax year. For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, Class 3 voluntary contributions cost £18.40 a week and Class 2 (for the self-employed) £3.65 a week, and “you usually pay the current rate when you make a voluntary contribution”.

One caution: Gov.uk says to check your forecast before paying, because filling a gap does not always raise your pension, and suggests contacting the Future Pension Centre if you are below State Pension age and unsure.

The US: your Social Security Statement

Your Social Security Statement lives inside a my Social Security account at ssa.gov. The Social Security Administration says it includes “a bar graph displaying your personalized retirement benefit estimates at nine different ages”, your earnings history and how to report errors. If you are 60 or over and have no online account, a statement is posted to you three months before your birthday. The SSA recommends reviewing it every year.

The earnings history is the part most people skip and most worth reading: a missing or wrong year quietly lowers your figure for life.

62, 67 or 70: what the ages mean

For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67. You can claim from 62, but “the benefit amount you will receive is less than your full retirement benefit”. The SSA’s table for that birth year shows the monthly benefit as a share of the full amount: 70% at 62, 75% at 63, 80% at 64, 86.7% at 65, 93.3% at 66 and 100% at 67. In money terms, a $1,000 full benefit becomes $700 if claimed at 62.

Wait beyond 67 and the figure keeps growing. For people born in 1943 or later, delayed retirement credits add 8% a year until “the benefit increase stops when you reach age 70”. Three years at 8% is 24%, so the same $1,000 benefit at 67 becomes roughly $1,240 at 70, before any cost-of-living adjustments.

That is not a recommendation to wait; it depends on your health, earnings, a spouse’s benefit and how long you will need the income. One SSA warning: even if you delay claiming, “sign up for just Medicare at age 65”, or coverage may be “delayed and cost more”.

Why doing this at 50-something matters

The fixable things are only fixable with time: the UK’s six-year deadline means a gap from your late forties is still open, and a US earnings error is easier to prove while you can find the paperwork. Knowing roughly what the state will pay, and from when, also makes the question for your other pensions smaller and clearer. Our complete guide to money after 50 shows how that number fits on your one-page picture, and the Money Reset workbook has a page for this check. The next job is usually rounding up the pots you have forgotten; our guide to finding lost pensions and retirement accounts takes you through it.

This week

1. Sign in to your State Pension forecast (UK) or my Social Security account (US), with your passport or driving licence handy.
2. Write down the weekly or monthly figure, the date it starts, and any gap between “current” and “could get”.
3. UK: list the non-qualifying years on your National Insurance record and the cost of filling each. US: read the earnings history and flag anything missing.
4. If unsure whether a gap is worth filling, ring the Future Pension Centre before you pay anything.
5. Diary the same check for next year.