The full basic State Pension you can get is £203.85 per week. You usually need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions to get the full amount.
You will usually need at least 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record to get any State Pension. You will need 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension. You will get a part of the new State Pension if you have between 10 and 35 qualifying years.
The current new full state pension is £203.85 a week – or £10,600.20 a year.
How much pension do you need to live comfortably? For a quick estimate, try the '50-70' rule. This suggests that you should aim for an annual income that is between 50% and 70% of your working income. So if you earn £50,000 now, you will want to achieve somewhere between £25,000 and £35,000 a year.
Under the Pensions Act 2007 the State Pension age for men and women will increase from 67 to 68 between 2044 and 2046. The Pensions Act 2014 provides for a regular review of the State Pension age, at least once every five years.
Iceland tops the list of nations having the highest average retirement age, followed by Israel and Norway.
Countries with the lowest pension ages
Sri Lanka has one of the lowest pension ages in the world, with workers able to clock off at 55. Indonesia and Nepal follow closely behind, with retirement ages of 58. In fourth place is Bangladesh, with a pension age of 59.
In 2023, we have calculated that a single person needs to earn £29,500 to have an acceptable standard of living, up from £25,000 in 2022. A couple with two children need to earn £50,000, compared to £44,500 in 2022.
The rule of thumb is that to you'll need about 80 percent of your pre-retirement income to maintain your lifestyle in retirement, although that rule requires a pretty flexible thumb.
Average UK retirement income
The actual average retirement pension income in the UK is £361 per week, which works out as £18,772 per year, or £1,564 per month. (GOV.UK). That's enough to get by, but not enough for a comfortable retirement.
How much will I get? The full level of the State Pension is £203.85 a week in the 2023/24 tax year, which gives an annual income of £10,600.20.
The state pension system is currently split into two tiers, with people receiving different sums based on their age, when they retired and how many National Insurance contributions they have.
To receive the full State Pension you must have paid 35 years of NI contributions. If you have never worked, and therefore never paid NI, you may still be eligible for the State Pension if you have received certain state benefits, for example carer's allowance or Universal Credit.
review your situation
If you've failed to meet your minimal National Insurance contributions, you will be given a basic state pension of £130 that can be topped up. Use our benefits calculator to review how much state pension you are entitled to receive and identify any additional benefits you may be able to apply for.
You can claim your pension while you're working, as long as you've reached: State Pension age, if you're claiming the State Pension. the age agreed with your pension provider, if it's a personal pension or workplace pension.
This money will need to last around 40 years to comfortably ensure that you won't outlive your savings. This means you can probably boost your total withdrawals (principal and yield) to around $20,000 per year. This will give you a pre-tax income of $35,000 per year.
If you earned around $50,000 per year before retirement, the odds are good that a $300,000 retirement account and Social Security benefits will allow you to continue enjoying your same lifestyle. By age 55 the median American household has about $120,000 saved for retirement, and about $212,500 in net worth.
Both nations have a cost of living that varies greatly depending on where you live. However, you can expect that there will be a higher cost of living in the US than the UK. Data shows that the cost of living is 0.49% lower in the UK than the US. This difference is even greater in cities that are expensive to live in.
The calculation
The UK Living Wage for outside of London is currently £12.00 per hour. The London Living Wage is currently £13.15 per hour. This covers all boroughs in Greater London.
According to a report by Numbeo in 2021, the cost of living index in the UK is 7.73% lower than that of the US. This is due to a number of factors, such as lower healthcare costs, lower transportation costs, and lower overall living expenses.
The Netherlands is often considered the best country to retire due to its ranking as having the best retirement system, according to the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index 2023.
As of 2023, the statutory retirement age is 67 in Italy, increasing strongly after the reforms enacted during the Global Financial Crisis. However, the high statutory retirement age is not binding for many workers as Italy provides broad access to early retirement, often without a penalty.