The Department for Work and Pensions has made The State Pension Debits and Credits (Revaluation) Order 2025 (S.I. 2025/1220). Made on 25 November and laid on 27 November, it fixes how divorce‑related state pension adjustments are uprated in Great Britain from April 2026. The schedule includes a 3.8% rate for 2025–26 and is signed by minister Torsten Bell, according to legislation.gov.uk.

Why this matters for households: if a past divorce or dissolution created a state pension sharing ‘credit’ for one person or a ‘debit’ for the other, that weekly amount is updated for inflation until the point you reach state pension age. This order sets the update that will apply for people claiming from April 2026 onward, and it is separate from the triple lock on the main State Pension rate.

The new schedule sets cumulative uplifts by the tax year in which your pension sharing figure was first calculated. For those reaching state pension age on or after 7 April 2026, key markers are 39.2% for 2016–17, 37.8% for 2017–18, 33.8% for 2018–19, 12.6% for 2023–24, 5.6% for 2024–25 and 3.8% for 2025–26. The law applies the last order in force before you reach pension age.

A quick sense‑check for recipients: say your divorce settlement produced a state pension credit of £12 a week in 2018–19. Applying the 33.8% factor used for claims from April 2026 takes that to roughly £16.06 a week (£12 × 1.338). Your paperwork should show the tax year used in the original calculation.

For the partner who carries the debit, the same maths applies in reverse. A 2017–18 state pension debit of £9 a week would be revalued to about £12.40 (£9 × 1.378) at claim, reducing the weekly State Pension by that amount when it is awarded.

Timing is specific. The order comes into force on 22 December 2025 for advance awards (so DWP can process early claims) and on 6 April 2026 for all other purposes. It applies in England, Wales and Scotland, per the instrument on legislation.gov.uk.

What to do now: pull your decree documentation and check whether a state pension credit or debit was created, confirm the tax year attached to it, and request a fresh State Pension forecast from DWP with any pension‑sharing adjustment noted. If you’re within four months of state pension age in early 2026, factor in the new revaluation.

This order concerns the new State Pension only. It doesn’t change how private pensions or workplace schemes awarded in a financial settlement behave, and it’s not the mechanism that sets the headline State Pension amount each April. Think of it as an inflation catch‑up for the slice created by pension sharing.

Northern Ireland has its own annual instrument; the Great Britain order does not extend there. The Department for Communities publishes a separate revaluation order for NI, as shown in the 2024 example on legislation.gov.uk.

A brief note from the explanatory text: no full impact assessment was produced, which is typical for these annual revaluations. For planning, the key takeaway is simple-match your original tax year to the schedule and model the weekly effect on your eventual award.