Overview

• The state pension will rise by 4.6% in April 2026 under the triple lock, increasing the full new state pension to £12,524 annually.
• Frozen tax-free personal allowances, unchanged since 2021 and set to remain until 2028, are driving more pensioners into taxable income brackets.
• An additional 700,000 retirees are expected to pay income tax by 2026, bringing the total number of pensioners paying tax to approximately 9.2 million.
• Experts warn of a 'tax cliff-edge' for pensioners as rising pensions interact with frozen thresholds, with the state pension itself projected to become taxable by 2027.
• Labour has not adopted the Conservatives' proposed 'triple lock plus' policy, which aimed to prevent the state pension from becoming taxable, fueling debates over the policy's sustainability.