Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made a major blunder before Parliament at this week's PMQs in setting out the Government's triple lock policy.

The PM was answering a question from opposition leader Kemi Badenoch, who had said it was "laughable" the Government had reversed its policy on the Winter Fuel Payment.

Labour announced last year it would tighten the eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment, so that rather than be a universal payment for those of state pension age, you would also need to be a certain means-tested benefit, such as Pension Credit.

But ministers announced in recent days a U-turn on the policy, opening up eligibility again so all state pensioners will qualify, although those who earn £35,000 or more will have to pay it back.

The Labour leader sought to defend the Government's decisions around pensioner benefits by listing its achievements to date, including as regards the triple lock.

Mr Starmer told the Commons his Government "is committed" to keeping the triple lock and went on to claim "that is £470 for most pensioners", referring to the latest state pension boost two months ago in April.

But in reality the £470 figure is the yearly increase you will be getting this year only if you are on the full new state pension, which increased from £221.20 a week to £230.25 a week from April.

DWP figures show that some 12.95 million people were claiming the state pension in 2024/2025, with only a third of these getting the new state pension, around 4.38 million people.

Earlier figures from the department sourced by and published in August 2024 showed there were then some 1.7 million people on the full new state pension, and so on track for the £470 increase lauded by the Prime Minister.

The total number on the full new amount will likely have gone up since then as more people have signed up for the new state pension, but will still be nowhere near accounting for 'most' state pensioners.

In fact, the latest DWP figures revealed the average new state pension payment was just £207.64 a week at August 2024, almost £30 a week below the full amount. Those on the basic state pension were getting just £199.12 a week.

How much state pension you receive or are on track to get when you claim depends on your National Insurance contributions.

You typically need 30 years of NI contributions to get the full basic state pension, currently £176.45 a week, or 35 years' worth to get the full new state pension.

It's worth checking if you have any gaps in your NI record that you can pay to fill in and if this would increase your state pension entitlement, as this could mean a major increase to your retirement income.

You can check how much state pension you are on track to receive using the state pension forecast on the Government website.