Why is my State Pension not increasing by the right amount?

Without knowing your full circumstances, I can only hazard a guess, but there are three common reasons why your State Pension increase may be lower than expected.

First, you might have been contracted out. If you were part of a workplace pension scheme that was contracted out of the additional State Pension, such as SERPS or S2P, before 2016, you would have paid lower National Insurance contributions. In exchange, you are likely receiving a lower State Pension. A deduction called the Contracted-Out Pension Equivalent is applied, and this part does not benefit from triple lock increases.

Second, you may have a protected payment. When the new State Pension system was introduced in 2016, your entitlement was calculated based on your National Insurance record under both the old and new rules. If you were due more than the full flat-rate pension, the extra was added as a protected payment. This part of your pension increases in line with CPI inflation only, rather than by the triple lock.

Third, you could be living overseas. If you are receiving your State Pension while living abroad, whether it increases each year depends on where you live. In some countries, the UK does not have a reciprocal agreement, so your pension is frozen at the amount you first received. That means no annual increases at all.

The best way to understand what applies to you is to contact HMRC. They can provide a full explanation of how your pension increase was calculated.