What is it worth to defer your state pension?
Thinking about delaying your State Pension? You’re not alone. The decision to defer can have a big impact on your retirement income — but it can be surprisingly hard to work out whether it’s worth it for you. Our comprehensive State Pension Guide explains the rules, benefits, and pitfalls of deferral in detail. On this page, we’ve created an interactive calculator to help you see what delaying your pension could mean for you — after tax — and how long it might take you to “break even.”
Why I built this calculator.
- Understand the trade-offs: See how much extra tax you’d pay if you claim your pension straight away compared with leaving it deferred.
- Get the key dates right: Work out the number of weeks you’ll need to defer to earn each extra 1% increase — and check you’re not deferring too long for no extra benefit.
- See the uplift clearly: Find out your uplifted weekly and annual pension after deferral — and what percentage increase you’ve earned.
- Plan your breakeven: Calculate how long it would take for the higher pension to make up for the net income you gave up while deferring, including partial tax years.
If you’re not sure when your state pension is due we have a calculator for that too.
You can obtain a state pension forecast from the government website at https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension
This calculator is for information only — it is not financial advice. While we’ve designed it carefully and tested it extensively, we always recommend a belt-and-braces approach: check the result manually or using a second system before making any decisions.
If you’d like tailored advice on whether deferring is right for you, please feel free to book a no obligation initial meeting.
