# State Pension on course for 3.9% rise but frozen tax threshold will pull more pensioners into tax net

By Maike Currie — 2026-09-15

Millions of UK pensioners are on course for a potentially inflation-beating increase in their State Pension next April, however the rise will also push the full new State Pension above the frozen income tax personal allowance – putting the interaction between the Triple Lock and the tax system firmly in focus ahead of the Autumn Budget.

Earnings growth at 3.9 per cent, means the full new State Pension would rise from £241.30 to around £250.70 a week – taking annual income to approximately £13,036. Someone receiving the full basic State Pension under the pre-2016 system could see their weekly payment rise from £184.90 to around £192.10.

Maike Currie, vice president of personal finance at PensionBee, said: “An inflation-beating State Pension rise will be welcome news for millions of pensioners, particularly those struggling with the cost of everyday essentials.

“But there is an increasingly obvious contradiction at the heart of the system: the Triple Lock is pushing the State Pension up while frozen tax thresholds are pulling more pensioners into the tax net.

“A rise of 3.9 per cent next April would take the State Pension above £13,000 and notably above the tax-free £12,570 personal allowance. So we increasingly have one arm of the government raising pensioners’ incomes while another claws some of that increase back through tax.”

The Triple Lock was introduced after decades in which the State Pension had fallen behind average earnings. Its role in rebuilding its value means PensionBee believes the debate should move beyond a binary choice between keeping the current system forever or simply scrapping it.

Currie said: “After 15 years of the Triple Lock, calls for its reform are growing as the cost continues to rise and questions of generational fairness become harder to ignore. The UK has around one million young people not in employment, education or training, persistent child poverty and a generation of workers facing high housing costs and a heavy tax burden, while also being asked to fund an increasingly expensive retirement system.

“However, pitching pensioners against young people is the wrong answer. We all rely on younger generations to work, build businesses and pay the taxes that ultimately support the State Pension. The challenge is to protect pensioners from poverty today without steadily passing an unsustainable bill to the working generation.”

Any reform of the Triple Lock would need to give people sufficient time to adjust their retirement plans. Changes to the State Pension age are typically announced years in advance, and PensionBee believes the same principle should apply to any fundamental change in how the State Pension is uprated.

Currie added: “People make retirement decisions decades ahead, so you can’t move the goalposts overnight. Any reform of the Triple Lock needs to be clearly signalled years in advance so people understand what is changing and have time to plan.”

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