Police Pension
Increase 2027

People searching for "police pension increase 2027" usually mean one of three different things. It helps to separate them, because they are driven by different numbers.

The bottom line for meaning A: do not plan around a specific April 2027 percentage until the ONS publishes September 2026 CPI on 21 October 2026. Until then, the honest approach is to model a range. Sections 6 and 7 show what each percentage means in pounds, and the calculator at the top of this page does it for your own numbers. For a projection of up to 20 years, use the free police pension increase calculator.

Public service pensions in the UK, including police pensions, are protected against inflation. Each April the amount you are paid goes up by a percentage linked to CPI. HM Treasury's own wording for the 2026 increase is that public service pensions which have been in payment for a year will be increased by 3.8% from 6 April 2026 in line with the September-to-September increase in CPI.

The legal machinery is a little technical but worth knowing about, because it explains why the process has fixed steps and dates. Section 59 of the Social Security Pensions Act 1975 provides for public service pensions to be increased annually by the same percentage as additional pensions in the state system. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions confirms that percentage for benefits, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury then confirms that public service pensions will rise by the same amount, and a Pensions Increase (Review) Order puts the increase into law each spring. HM Treasury's 2026 covering note describes exactly this sequence.

Three related but distinct things get called "the pension increase" in everyday conversation. Keeping them apart avoids most of the confusion:

The 3.8% and 5.05% figures are confirmed in the Scottish Public Pensions Agency's Police Circular 2026/02 of 25 March 2026 and in HM Treasury's public service pensions increase page for 2026.

There are three police pension schemes in England and Wales: the 1987 scheme, the 2006 scheme and the 2015 scheme. For a pension that has come into payment, the annual increase is the same public service pensions increase for all of them. The differences lie elsewhere.

Many serving officers are not solely in one scheme. Following the McCloud remedy, some officers have legacy-scheme service and 2015-scheme service in the remedy period, and the choice made for that period affects how the final pension is calculated. Once the pension is in payment, however, the resulting pension is increased in the ordinary way. Our McCloud remedy guide explains the remedy choice, and the police pension schemes guide compares the three schemes in detail.

The Pensions Increase (Review) Order 2026 (SI 2026/256) extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so the same CPI-based percentage applies across the UK. Some of the guidance we cite on timing comes from the Scottish Public Pensions Agency because it publishes clear police circulars. Where a rule's application in England and Wales is something we could not confirm from a Home Office source, this guide says so.

The legal basis in England and Wales is the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971. Schedule 2 to that Act lists the "official pensions" it covers: paragraph 43 includes pensions paid under the Police Pensions Act 1976 (the 1987 and 2006 schemes are made under that Act) and paragraph 43A includes police pensions under schemes made under the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 (the 2015 scheme). That is why a pension from any of the three schemes is increased by the same Order, and why the same qualifying conditions apply to all of them.

The increase is the annual percentage change in CPI as measured in September, published by the ONS the following month. The Scottish police circular of March 2026 puts it plainly: public service pensions in payment, together with those deferred for payment at a future date, are indexed annually based on the annual change in CPI measured as at the previous September. In the 12 months to September 2025, CPI was 3.8%, so 3.8% was applied from 6 April 2026.

1. ONS publishes September CPI. The 12-month CPI rate for September is the raw input. For September 2026 that release is scheduled for 21 October 2026.
2. The Department for Work and Pensions confirms the rate for benefits. HM Treasury's covering note describes the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions confirming the September-to-September CPI increase for benefits such as additional pensions.
3. The Treasury confirms the rate for public service pensions. In 2026 this was a Written Statement by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 26 February 2026.
4. A Pensions Increase (Review) Order is made. The 2026 Order (SI 2026/256) came into force on 6 April 2026.
5. Administrators apply it. Force pension administrators (or their contracted providers) update payments from the effective date and notify pensioners.

Two features are worth noting. First, the date is set by the calendar: the Scottish pensions agency describes increases as taking place from the first Monday after 5 April. Second, the rate is not a judgement call. It is the CPI figure itself, so there is no scope for negotiation in the way there is for pay.

If you retired before 55

This catches out many officers who retired from the 1987 scheme in their early fifties. Section 3 of the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 says a pension for your own service is not increased unless you have reached 55, retired on account of physical or mental infirmity, or are permanently incapacitated from regular full-time employment. The Pensions Increase (Review) Order 2026 only applied the 3.8% increase where a qualifying condition was met, or the pension was a survivor's (derivative) pension or a relevant injury pension (article 3(1)). The Scottish Public Pensions Agency's police guidance describes the practical effect: the increase is not applied until your 55th birthday, and the administrator works out the new rate before that birthday. Ask your own administrator how your rate at 55 will be calculated, so you can plan for it. Our first year in retirement guide covers the other early surprises.

Two details in section 3 are easy to miss. First, the Act still has a third qualifying condition, having at least one dependant (broadly, a person you wholly or mainly support who is under 17, in full-time education, or in full-time training lasting at least two years: section 3(6)), but since 1 January 1993 it only helps in a limited way: for a pension that starts before 55, it allows increases on the part of the pension "referable to service rendered before 1st January 1993" (section 3(11)). Officers who joined before 1993 and retire before 55 with a dependant should ask their administrator whether part of their pension qualifies. Second, a pension paid to a former spouse or civil partner under a pension sharing order (a pension credit) is not increased until that person reaches 55 (section 3(2A)).

What happens at 55? The increase Orders work by reference to the date a pension began, which for a police pension is the day after the last day of service (section 8(2)). Section 3 only stops the increases being paid before a qualifying condition is met. Public service administrators describe the practical result as the pension being brought up, from 55, to the level it would have reached had it been increased every year since you left, with no back-payment for the years before 55 (that is how the Northern Ireland local government scheme, NILGOSC, puts it). We could not read an England and Wales police administrator's published statement of the method, so treat this as the general rule and get your own figure from your administrator.

If CPI is negative, pensions are not reduced. The 2016 Scottish police circular records that CPI in the 12 months to September 2015 was -0.1% and no inflationary increase was applied from April 2016 to either pensions in payment or deferred pensions.

The table below shows what has happened and what is expected. Dates marked "expected" are inferred from how the process has worked in previous years and are not confirmed.

On the 12 April 2027 date: recent Orders took effect on 6 April 2026, 7 April 2025 and 8 April 2024, each the first Monday after 5 April. In 2021 the increase took effect on 12 April, in a year with the same calendar as 2027. The exact 2027 date will be set by the 2027 Order, and only matters in detail if your pension began in the previous 12 months.

What will be published

The ONS bulletin reports several inflation measures. Only one matters for police pensions: the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) 12-month rate to September 2026. In the August 2026 bulletin the equivalent line read that CPI "rose by 3.1% in the 12 months to August 2026". The same bulletin also reports CPIH (3.3% in August 2026, which includes owner occupiers' housing costs) and RPI. Neither of those sets the public service pensions increase.

How to read it

1. Find the CPI 12-month rate for September 2026 in the bulletin's main points.
2. For pensions in payment for a full year by the increase date, that is the expected April 2027 percentage. The April 2026 increase (3.8%) matched CPI to September 2025, and the April 2025 increase (1.7%) matched CPI to September 2024.
3. If your pension began after about April 2026, expect a pro-rata share (section 8). If you are under 55 and did not retire on ill-health grounds, expect no increase to be paid in April 2027 (section 4).
4. If you are a serving 2015 scheme member, add 1.25 percentage points to get the likely 1 April 2027 revaluation of your built-up CARE pension (section 10).
5. If the figure is negative, pensions in payment are not cut; the increase is nil (as in April 2016).

What 21 October does not settle

The CPI figure is the input, not the legal decision. Under section 59 of the Social Security Pensions Act 1975, the public service increase follows the percentage the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions directs for state additional pensions; the Treasury then confirms it (in 2026, by Written Statement on 26 February) and makes a Pensions Increase (Review) Order (the 2026 Order was made on 9 March 2026 and came into force on 6 April 2026). The CARE revaluation uses a separate Treasury order, the Public Service Pensions Revaluation Order, made the same day in 2026 and in force for police from 1 April 2026. So after 21 October, the April 2027 percentage is highly likely but not formally confirmed until those steps happen. We will update this page when they do.

Worked table: what three CPI values would mean

Illustrative people, not real cases, at three round CPI values. These are not forecasts. Figures are gross annual changes, before tax, and assume the April 2027 rules mirror the 2026 Order.

• The "reaching 55" row is the uplift over the flat £20,000 once the person turns 55: £20,000 × 1.0085 (the April 2025 band for a pension beginning 1 October 2024, from SI 2025/343) × 1.038 (April 2026) × the April 2027 scenario. It assumes the administrator applies every increase since the pension began, as described in section 4. We could not confirm the England and Wales method, so ask your administrator.
• The pro-rata row assumes the 2027 increase date is 12 April 2027 and the usual complete-months rule. The 2027 Order will fix both.
• Not shown: guaranteed minimum pension adjustments, McCloud remedy recalculations, abatement and tax. A commuted pension is increased on the reduced amount actually paid (section 11, example D).

The table shows the extra annual pension a given percentage would add to three example pensions, for a full-year increase (no pro-rata). Divide by 12 for the monthly effect. Figures are gross, before tax.

A useful rule of thumb: each single percentage point is worth 1% of your pension. On a £20,000 pension, the gap between a 2% and a 4% increase is £400 a year, or about £33 a month before tax.

If you retire during the year, you do not get a full year's increase at the next April. The Pensions Increase (Review) Order 2026 spells out the mechanism. For a pension that began before 7 April 2025, the increase in April 2026 was the full 3.8%. For a pension that began on or after 7 April 2025, the increase was 3.8% multiplied by a fraction: the number of complete months between the date the pension began and 6 April 2026, divided by 12. This produced a sliding scale from 3.8% down to 0.32% (one complete month in payment).

The Order's own start-date bands do not follow calendar months to the increase date. They roll over later in the month: 22nd to 21st in the 2026 Order (SI 2026/256), 28th to 27th in the 2021 Order (SI 2021/275). For example, a pension that began on 21 April 2025 got the full 3.8% and one that began on 22 April 2025 got 3.48%. April 2027 has the same calendar as 2021, so the calculator assumes 28th to 27th bands until the 2027 Order is published.

The 3.8% column is arithmetic applied to the April 2026 rate; the 0.32% figure for one complete month appears in the Order's scale. The 3% column is a scenario. Values are rounded to two decimal places.

A practical consequence: the pension increase is one of several reasons the exact retirement date can matter. Retiring a few weeks earlier or later than a rough plan can change the pro-rata fraction for the first April. The effect is small in pounds for most people, but worth knowing about when comparing quotes. The rule does not reduce your pension. It only affects how much the first increase adds.

The same pro-rata principle appears in the Order for deferred lump sums payable during the year, and Article 4 contains provisions relating to guaranteed minimum pensions. Administrators apply those technical rules. They do not usually change what a typical retiring officer needs to plan for, but they are one reason your statement may not match a simple percentage calculation.

The official bands by start date

Each Order's Explanatory Note turns the complete-months rule into a table of start-date bands, and those bands are what administrators work from. The bands do not run from the 1st of each month. In the 2026 Order they run from the 22nd to the 21st; in the 2025 Order from the 23rd to the 22nd; in the 2021 Order (the last year with the same calendar as 2027, with an increase date of 12 April) from the 28th to the 27th. Selected 2026 bands:

Source: Explanatory Note to the Pensions Increase (Review) Order 2026 (SI 2026/256), which lists all twelve bands. A pension that began between 22 March and 5 April 2026 is not in the table and received no April 2026 increase. Because the bands are offset, a simple count of calendar months (as our calculator uses) can come out one month lower than the official band for some start dates. The 2027 bands will be in the 2027 Order; check your date against them when it is published.

Guaranteed minimum pensions

Some police pensions include a guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) element; your administrator can tell you whether yours does. Article 4 of each Order reduces the amount the increase is calculated on by the GMP "unless the Treasury otherwise direct". On 23 March 2021 the government decided that full GMP indexation is the permanent arrangement for public service scheme members who reach State Pension age on or after 6 April 2021, so for them the public service scheme pays the full increase. If you reached State Pension age earlier, the split between the scheme and the State Pension can differ; we have not set it out here, so ask your administrator.

The table below lists the annual public service pensions increase for each April since 2021, as published by HM Treasury on GOV.UK, alongside the 2015 scheme active-member revaluation (CPI plus 1.25 percentage points) where a police source publishes it: the Police Federation of England and Wales for 2023 to 2026, and Local Pensions Partnership Administration's April 2022 notice for 2022.

"n/a" means we have not listed a verified figure. The pension increase column applies to pensions that had been in payment for a full year; recently retired members received a pro-rata share.

Notice the shape: a very low year in 2021, followed by a jump to 10.1% in 2023 as inflation surged, then a fall back to 1.7% in 2025 and a rise to 3.8% in 2026. Pensions in payment followed inflation with a lag, which is exactly what the indexation rule is designed to do.

For the 2015 scheme active-member revaluation, the Police Federation lists 11.35% for April 2023, 7.95% for April 2024, 2.95% for April 2025 and 5.05% for April 2026. Each of these is exactly the matching pension increase plus 1.25 percentage points (10.1% + 1.25 = 11.35%, and so on), which is what the 2015 regulations define as the "index adjustment".

Not every officer's pension is in payment. Those who have left and will claim later hold a deferred pension, and those still serving in the 2015 scheme have an accruing CARE pot. These are treated differently from pensions in payment.

Deferred pensions

The Scottish police circular is explicit that public service pensions in payment, together with those that are deferred for payment at a future date, are indexed annually using the same September CPI figure. It also states that for deferred members of the 2015 scheme, the revaluation rate is the CPI figure included in the Pensions Increase (Review) Order, with no 1.25% addition. The Scottish regulations are separate from the England and Wales Police Pensions Regulations 2015, but they are designed to mirror the same UK-wide framework. If you hold a deferred police pension in England or Wales, ask your administrator to confirm the rate applied to your deferred benefits.

The England and Wales legislation points the same way. Section 8(2) of the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 treats a pension as beginning on the day after the last day of the service it is paid for, "whenever the pension accrues or becomes payable". So the annual increases are counted from your leaving date, and a deferred pension that starts years later reflects them. The Home Office members' leaflet for the 2015 scheme says that after you leave your pension is increased by CPI only, without the extra 1.25%. When a deferred pension is paid depends on the scheme: see resigning from the police.

Active 2015 scheme members

The Police Pensions Regulations 2015 (England and Wales) define the "index adjustment" applied to the opening balance of earned pension for any scheme year as the change in prices in the previous scheme year, plus 1.25%. Under section 9 of the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, the "change in prices" is the percentage increase or decrease a Treasury order specifies. That order is the Public Service Pensions Revaluation Order, separate from the Pensions Increase Order. The 2026 Order (SI 2026/254) set the change in prices for 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 at 3.8%, "based on a measure of the year on year change in the Consumer Prices Index to September 2025", and came into force on 1 April 2026 (6 April only for the local government and NHS schemes it names). So the measure is the same September CPI, but the date it reaches a serving officer's pension record is 1 April, the start of the scheme year, rather than the April increase date for pensions in payment. Regulation 46 of the 2015 Regulations also provides for a retirement index adjustment based on complete months in the year in which you leave, so the uplift in your leaving year is pro-rated in a similar way to the first-year rule for pensions in payment.

The 1.25% premium is the reason officers are sometimes told that staying in service is "worth more" than the headline pension increase suggests. It is true that a serving 2015 scheme member's pot grows faster than a retired member's pension in payment. But the decision to retire depends on many things beyond this: the actuarial reduction for early exit before normal pension age 60, additional accrual in the years you would work, and personal circumstances. The retire-now-or-wait guide discusses this trade-off, and the paid Pension Command Centre models it for your own numbers.

On 11 September 2026 the Home Office published Circular 012/2026, "CPI and the Police Pension Scheme 2015". It follows a consultation that ran from 19 January to 16 March 2026. In summary, the date on which active 2015 scheme members' pensions are revalued moves from 1 April to the start of the tax year, so that the revaluation period runs 6 April to 5 April. The change is due to take effect from April 2027, applies going forward only and needs amendments to the Police Pensions Regulations 2015 and to the Treasury's revaluation order. Read the circular itself for the operative wording; we have summarised the GOV.UK page.

Why it matters

HMRC measures annual allowance over the tax year, 6 April to 5 April, but the 2015 scheme has revalued at 1 April. The circular says that mismatch means different CPI values may be applied when pension input amounts are calculated, which can artificially increase measured pension growth and lead to unexpected annual allowance tax charges. Using one date means the same CPI value is used in both the pension calculation and the annual allowance assessment. Our annual allowance guide explains how pension input amounts are worked out.

What it does not change

• It does not change how much your pension is increased once in payment. That is still September CPI, the subject of this page.
• It does not change the 1.25% added to CPI for active 2015 members.
• It is not retrospective: past revaluations stand.

Some worked figures on this page describe the active 2015 revaluation as applied "1 April 2027". Treat that as the old date: once the regulations are amended the date will be as set out in the circular, and we will update the examples when the amending regulations are published. If you are close to an annual allowance charge, ask your administrator which date and which CPI figure they will use for 2027/28.

Related: pension calculator and McCloud remedy explained.

Example A: an officer retired for several years

An officer whose pension is £20,000 a year after the April 2026 increase, and who retired well over a year ago, receives the full increase.

• At a 2% scenario: £20,000 × 1.02 = £20,400 (+£400 a year, about +£33.33 a month).
• At a 3% scenario: £20,600 (+£600 a year, +£50.00 a month).
• At a 4% scenario: £20,800 (+£800 a year, +£66.67 a month).

If the increase was 3% every year for ten years, the pension would reach about £26,878 (£20,000 × 1.03 to the power of 10). This is a compounding illustration only, since real CPI will not stay constant.

Example B: an officer who retires during the year

An officer retires on 1 October 2026 with a pension of £20,000. By an assumed increase date of 12 April 2027 there are six complete months in payment. At a 3% scenario, the first increase is 3% × 6/12 = 1.5%, so £20,000 × 1.015 = £20,300 rather than £20,600. From April 2028 the full percentage applies. The calculator lets you enter a retirement date and see the effect directly.

Example C: a serving 2015 scheme member

Imagine an accrued pot equivalent to £15,000 a year of pension at 1 April 2027. If September 2026 CPI were 3.1%, the active-member revaluation would be 3.1% + 1.25% = 4.35%, adding £652.50 of annual pension to that pot (£15,000 × 0.0435), compared with £465 if the pot were indexed at CPI alone. This is the extra effect of the 1.25% premium for a serving member. The 3.1% here is simply the August CPI number used as a round example, not a prediction of the September figure.

Example D: commuted pension

An officer with an unreduced pension of £24,000 commuted part of it and now receives £21,000 a year. The annual increase applies to the £21,000 that is actually paid, not to the original £24,000. The lump sum already received does not increase. This is why the commutation calculator and the 2026 lump sum changes guide are worth reading before making the commutation choice: giving up pension also gives up the increases that would have been applied to it.

The Home Secretary confirmed in a written statement on 15 July 2026 that police officers in England and Wales will receive a consolidated 3.5% pay increase from 1 September 2026. The statement described this as below the recommendations of both bodies that advise on police pay: the Police Remuneration Review Body recommended 3.9% for ranks up to chief superintendent, and the Senior Salaries Review Body recommended 3.7% for chief officers. The full pay picture is in our police pay rise 2026/27 guide.

What does that do to a pension? It depends on whether you are retired or serving.

The 2015 scheme accrual arithmetic

The Police Federation states that officers accrue 1/55.3 of their average pensionable pay into the 2015 scheme each year. As an illustration: pensionable pay of £50,000 in a year gives £50,000 ÷ 55.3 = about £904 of annual pension for that year. If pay rose 3.5% to £51,750, the same calculation gives about £936, a difference of about £32 of extra pension for that year. That accrued amount is then revalued each April at CPI + 1.25% while you serve. The example is round-number arithmetic, not a personal forecast, and it ignores the part-year effect of the award starting on 1 September.

For the 1987 and 2006 schemes, the effect of a pay award depends on final pensionable pay and accrued service, and on choices made under the McCloud remedy. We do not give a single figure here because it varies by officer. The how much will my police pension be guide covers the calculation, and the Pension Command Centre can model your own case.

Some people searching for the 2027 pension increase are really asking about contributions. From 1 April 2026 a revised member contribution structure applies to the Police Pension Scheme 2015 in England and Wales. The Home Office's report to Parliament (9 March 2026) and the Police Pensions (Member Contributions) (Amendment and Transitional Provisions) (England and Wales) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/267) set out the new tiers.

The regulations also set reduced rates (10.38%, 11.38% and 11.72% in the new tiers) for certain members. See SI 2026/267, regulation 170, for who qualifies; this guide does not attempt to summarise the eligibility rules.

The Home Office report gives its reasons: the structure needed to deliver a required average yield of 13.7% and remain consistent with HM Treasury's cost-sharing requirements, with the old structure generating 13.48%. The old thresholds had not changed since 2015 and no longer reflected current pay levels, and the lowest tier contained no members. The regulations also replace the use of full-time-equivalent earnings with actual pensionable earnings when determining the tier, a change aimed at fairness for part-time officers.

The difference between the first two tiers is one percentage point (12.88% versus 13.88%). As an illustration, one percentage point on £37,000 of pensionable pay is £370 a year. Contributions are one of several factors in comparing the value of staying in the scheme; our pension versus take-home pay guide looks at that trade-off. Contributions and the annual increase are separate mechanisms: paying more in does not change the percentage by which your pension in payment is later increased.

This guide is not tax advice, but three points are worth flagging because they affect how much of an increase you keep.

• Police pension income is taxable. The annual increase is part of that taxable income. GOV.UK gives the Personal Allowance for 2026/27 as £12,570, with the basic rate of 20% applying to taxable income from £12,571 up to £50,270 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Your tax code and other income determine what you actually keep. Scottish taxpayers use different bands.
• Gross versus net. All figures in this guide and in the calculator are gross. A £600 annual increase is worth about £480 after basic-rate tax and less after higher-rate tax, before considering other factors.
• Annual allowance. GOV.UK gives the standard annual allowance as £60,000 a year, with reduced or tapered allowances in some circumstances. For serving members of a defined benefit scheme, the pension growth measured against the allowance is calculated by your scheme administrator, who can issue a Pension Savings Statement. The April revaluation of a 2015 scheme pot is one input into that measurement, so serving officers with high earnings or large accrued pensions should ask their administrator rather than estimate it themselves.

We have deliberately not stated the lump sum allowance or lifetime-allowance-related limits here. They do not affect the annual increase, and the position is covered in our lump sum changes guide.

1. Retired officers: note 21 October 2026 in your diary. Once September CPI is published, the percentage follows. Until then, budget using a range rather than a single number, and use the calculator at the top of this page to see what each scenario means in pounds.
2. Recently retired or retiring soon: check the date your pension began and estimate the complete months to the April increase date. The pro-rata effect can be checked in the calculator.
3. Serving 2015 scheme members: remember that your pot revaluation is CPI plus 1.25%, and check your annual benefit statement after April 2027 for the revaluation applied.
4. Serving officers near a contribution threshold: read the SI 2026/267 definition of relevant pay and ask your force or payroll team which earnings determine your tier.
5. Retired before 55: no increase is paid until you reach 55 unless you retired on ill-health grounds (Pensions (Increase) Act 1971, s.3), apart from a narrow exception for pre-1993 service if you have a dependant. Ask your administrator to explain in writing how your rate will be recalculated at 55.
6. Everyone: keep your administrator's April letter and P60, which show the increase actually applied.