If you’re receiving the State Pension, you’re probably already know it increased on 6 April. In the 2026/27 tax year, the full new State Pension rose to £241.30 a week, or £12,547.60 a year, up from £230.25 a week (£11,973.00 a year) in 2025/26.
When you consider the Office for National Statistics revealed that inflation, which measures the rising cost of living, stood at 3.3% in March, the increase is likely to be very welcome. While most retirees have private pensions to help support their lifestyle, the State Pension is often an integral part of their financial retirement strategy.
As such, it’s often central to providing long-term financial security. That said, there are many people who reach the State Pension Age (SPA) and continue to work, either because of financial necessity or choice.
If you’re one of them, you may not realise that you can delay your State Pension until you finish working later on. This could boost the amount of State Pension you eventually receive, however care needs to be taken if this is something you’re considering, as going ahead could leave you worse off. Read on to discover more.
Your State Pension increases every nine weeks that you defer
While you might assume that your State Pension is paid automatically when you reach the SPA, in reality you need to claim it. As part of the process of claiming it, you have to option to defer your payments if you’d rather.
According to Royal London in April 2026, nearly 42,000 people deferred their State Pension in 2023-24 for an average of four years. If you do delay the benefit, the amount you eventually receive typically increases by 1% for every nine weeks that you defer.
This higher amount will then be paid for the rest of your life.
According to the pension provider, deferring for a whole year means you’d receive around 5.8% more if you’re entitled to the full new State Pension in 2026/27. As such, your State Pension would rise to £255.24 a week, or £13,272.48 a year.
If you defer for a year or less, you can choose to take the additional funds as a single lump sum payment.
Workers could reduce their Income Tax liability by deferring
Aside from increasing the amount you eventually receive, deferring your State Pension could help you to manage your Income Tax liability. If you’re working and earn just below the 40% higher-rate threshold of £50,270, drawing your State Pension could push you up into it.
Similarly, deferring your benefit could reduce your exposure to 40% Income Tax if you intend to take a higher taxable income from your personal pension at the start of your retirement. This might be, for example, to fund a more active lifestyle while you’re young enough to enjoy it.
All that said, it’s important to remember that the more State Pension that you eventually receive the more Income Tax you could pay further down the line.
Deferring could mean you receive less State Pension over the long term
It’s important to remember that the longer you defer the benefit for, the more State Pension you’ll miss out on. This increases the risk that you might not get it all back before you die.
To illustrate this, you might want to consider the following. If you defer your pension for a year, you’ll miss out on £12,547.60 yet boost the amount you receive by £724.88 a year, according to Royal London.
As such, it would take 17 years of increased payments to recover the amount lost. This means you may need to live for some time before your ‘break-even point’ is reached and you earn more than you would have done if you didn’t defer.
This is something you will need to consider carefully, especially as you can’t leave your additional State Pension to a spouse or civil partner if you reached the SPA after 6 April 2026.
You can defer your State Pension if you’re already claiming it
If you’re already retired and are considering going back to work, you might be interested in pausing your State Pension Payments. The good news is that the Government allows you to do this, however there is a catch.
Those who are already drawing the benefit can only defer it once, which means you can’t retire later on and again defer your State Pension. If you want to defer your State Pension after you’ve already started claiming it, contact the Pension Service on 0800 731 0469.
Get in touch
While deferring your State Pension could provide benefits, it’s important to consider your options carefully. This is why you should talk to a financial adviser about the pros and cons of going ahead, as they’ll help you to understand whether it’s the right option for you.
If you would like to discuss this, or your pensions more generally, please call us on 0333 010 0008 to arrange no obligation initial meeting with one of our independent advisers.
Please note: while we hope you found this blog useful, it’s for general information purposes only and should not be seen as advice.
1 May 2026