ILR and the State Pension: what counts and what to check

Your UK State Pension depends on your National Insurance record, not your immigration status. You need at least 10 qualifying years to get any new State Pension and 35 qualifying years for the full rate of £241.30 a week (2026/27), and years you worked in the UK on a visa count exactly the same as years worked after getting indefinite leave to remain.

The State Pension is contributory, not status-based

The new State Pension is a contributory benefit. Entitlement is built through National Insurance contributions and credits, year by year, regardless of what visa you held at the time. Getting ILR does not unlock the State Pension, and not having ILR does not block it. What matters is whether each tax year counts as a qualifying year, which happens when you were working and paying National Insurance, receiving National Insurance credits (for example while unemployed, ill, or caring for a child), or paying voluntary contributions.

ILR and citizenship both need the Life in the UK test — see how you'd score on a free mock test, no sign-up needed.

Because it is contributory, the State Pension is also explicitly excluded from the list of public funds in Home Office guidance. Someone on a visa with a no recourse to public funds condition can still build entitlement and, once they reach State Pension age, claim it.

How many qualifying years you need

Under the new State Pension rules, you usually need at least 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record to get anything at all. If your record started after April 2016, which is true for most people who arrived in the UK on a Skilled Worker or other recent route, you need 35 qualifying years for the full rate. With between 10 and 34 years, you get a proportion of the full amount.

For the 2026/27 tax year the full new State Pension is £241.30 a week, following a 4.8% earnings-linked uprating from £230.25. Roughly, each qualifying year on a post-2016 record is worth about a thirty-fifth of the full rate, so every extra year you can add has real long-term value.

If you have lived or worked abroad, some overseas periods can also help, particularly where the UK has a social security agreement with that country. This is worth checking rather than assuming.

Years worked on a visa count in full

A common worry is that time spent on a Student, Graduate, Skilled Worker, or family visa somehow does not count towards the pension. It does. If you were employed and National Insurance was deducted from your pay, or you were self-employed and paid the right contributions, those years are qualifying years like anyone else's. The Home Office and HMRC systems are separate: HMRC tracks your contributions, and your pension entitlement flows from that record alone.

The practical implication is that many ILR holders already have 5 to 10 qualifying years banked before settlement, and simply carrying on working will build the rest. If you are planning to retire outside the UK later, also read how long absences affect ILR itself, because ILR can lapse after 2 continuous years abroad even though your pension entitlement survives.

Filling gaps with voluntary Class 3 contributions

If your record has gaps, for example years when you were on a visa that did not permit work, studying without earnings, or abroad, you may be able to pay voluntary Class 3 National Insurance contributions to turn those years into qualifying years. For 2026/27, Class 3 costs £18.40 a week, so buying a full year costs a little under £1,000 and can add roughly £6.89 a week to your eventual pension for life. That is usually an excellent return, but check first, because extra years do not always increase your pension (for instance if you will reach 35 years anyway).

You can normally only pay for gaps in the past 6 tax years, with a deadline of 5 April each year, so do not leave old gaps unexamined for too long.

Start by checking your record at GOV.UK's check your National Insurance record service. It shows every year, whether it qualifies, and whether voluntary contributions would actually help.

Pension Credit is different: it is a public fund

Pension Credit, the means-tested top-up for pensioners on low incomes, is on the Home Office public funds list. That means claiming it while you hold a visa with a no recourse to public funds condition would breach your conditions. After ILR you have no such condition, so ILR holders of State Pension age can claim Pension Credit like any other resident, alongside other means-tested support. The same logic applies to council housing and other benefits after ILR.

The checklist is short: confirm your qualifying years on GOV.UK, work out whether voluntary Class 3 contributions are worth it before the 6-year deadline passes, and keep means-tested claims strictly for after settlement.