Firefighters pension increases explained

The firefighters pension increase for 2026 is 3.8% from 6 April 2026, the Treasury's yearly rise on pensions already being paid.

That single rate is the starting point for retired firefighters in the 1992, 2006 and 2015 schemes alike. Your own cash rise can still come out lower, depending on when your pension began and your age. Retired firefighters weighing the April rise against other income can have an FCA-authorised adviser telephone them for free once they complete the form on this page.

What is the firefighters pension increase for 2026?

It is 3.8% for any firefighters' pension that began before 7 April 2025. The Pensions Increase (Review) Order 2026 says the pension authority may increase the annual rate "for a pension which began before 7th April 2025, by 3.8 per cent". The Treasury made it on 9 March 2026, and it applies from 6 April 2026.

The Local Government Association's firefighters' pensions team, which runs the scheme's regulations website, reported that HM Treasury confirmed the figure in a written ministerial statement on 26 February 2026. Public service pensions would rise by 3.8%, "in line with the Consumer Prices Index for the year up to September 2025". On a round £12,000 a year, 3.8% adds £456 and takes the pension to £12,456 (our own worked example, calculated 29 October 2026, not anyone's actual pension).

The same statement gave a different number, 4.8%, for pension pots still being built in schemes that revalue on earnings. That is a separate yearly adjustment, covered below, and not the rise on a pension in payment.

Firefighters pension annual increase: how the rate is set

Every year the Treasury must make an order raising public service pensions. The Order's Explanatory Note explains the trigger: once the Work and Pensions Secretary directs an increase in certain additional pension entitlements, "the Treasury must make an order to increase the rates in public service pensions", and the percentage matches that direction. The older Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 supplies the definitions and decides when a pension counts as having begun.

So the firefighter schemes do not set their own percentage. Their administrators apply the Treasury's, and the LGA lists each year's order on its annual-update page for fire pension administrators. The Order lets an authority raise a pension; the scheme guides, covered below, say how that works for firefighters.

Timing follows a pattern: a Treasury announcement in late winter, an order made in March, and a start date in the first or second week of April. The rises from earlier years show it.

Firefighters pension increases in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025

These are the Treasury's full-year percentages, not what any one pension rose by. The 2024 entry is the "No. 2" order. A pension that began during the preceding year gets a fraction, explained further down.

Do the 1992, 2006 and 2015 schemes get the same increase?

The yearly percentage is the same; what differs is the scheme the pension was built in. For the 1992 scheme, the retirements guide for employers from Local Pensions Partnership, one of the scheme's administrators, says in its 1992 section that pensions are increased in line with CPI. The England 2006 Order refers to "any increase under the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971" when it adds up pensions. The 2015 regulations define "PIA 1971" as that Act and use it as the measure for indexing added pension.

The 2015 scheme has a second inflation step during service. Its member site explains that each year the pension already built up is revalued "to ensure that it keeps up with the cost of living", using the average weekly earnings measure. For April 2026 that earnings-based figure was 4.8%, against 3.8% for pensions being paid. Once a 2015 pension is being paid, the Treasury's pensions increase takes over, which is why a serving firefighter's pot can appear to grow faster than a retired colleague's income.

Some people hold both a final salary pension and a 2015 one. The rules of each part apply separately, so each can move differently. How the three schemes compare is in the 1992, 2006 and 2015 firefighters' schemes compared, and how a pension is worked out in the first place in how to work out a firefighters pension. A spouse's or child's pension after a death is a different topic, covered in firefighters' pension death benefits.

Scottish firefighters belong to separate Scottish schemes run by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, which describes the benefits as "index linked and guaranteed by the Government". The SPPA can say how it applies the yearly order to your pension.

Retired before 55: when does the increase start?

For an age-based pension, usually from the firefighter's 55th birthday. Under section 3 of the 1971 Act, a pension in respect of the pensioner's own service is not increased unless the pensioner has reached the age of 55, or "has retired on account of physical or mental infirmity" from the job concerned, or meets one of the other listed conditions.

For the 1992 scheme, the guidance matches it. Local Pensions Partnership's employer guide says in its 1992 section that "Pensions Increase is paid from the firefighters 55th birthday" unless the retirement is on ill-health grounds. The September 2008 guide to the 1992 scheme (England), in a copy hosted by Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, adds that the rise is paid at once on ill-health pensions and on pensions for widows, widowers, civil partners and children. Age retirement pensions get it "from age 55, taking account of any increases which have accumulated from the date of retirement if earlier". So a firefighter who retired early on a 1992 pension does not lose the rises in between; they are added when they reach 55. For a 2006 or 2015 pension paid before 55, the scheme administrator can confirm when increases begin.

That is the general rule in the guides, and individual circumstances vary. Early leavers unsure when their increases begin can request a ring-back via the form here; the dates are then talked through, for nothing, by an FCA-authorised adviser.

Three things that can shrink your April 2026 rise

There are three common reasons. First, your pension may be younger than a year. The 1971 Act, in section 8, fixes the start as "the day following the last day of the service in respect of which the pension is payable". Where that day is 7 April 2025 or later, the 2026 Order takes 3.8% and applies only the fraction of a year that has passed, counted in whole months up to 6 April 2026, as twelfths; a part-month only counts when it runs to at least 16 days. The Order's Note tabulates the outcome: 3.8% for a pension beginning between 7 and 21 April 2025, and for example 1.9% for one beginning between 22 September and 21 October 2025. On £12,000 a year, 1.9% adds £228, giving £12,228.

Second, the start of increases may be age-linked, as described above. Third, article 4 of the Order, as the Note summarises it, takes a guaranteed minimum pension (from contracted-out service) off the amount the increase is worked out on. Which of these apply to you shows on the pension payslip or the scheme's letter about the April change.

What about the firefighters pension rise for 2027?

It is not set yet. For 2026 the Treasury announced the percentage on 26 February and the order followed in March. If 2027 follows the same pattern, the figure to watch for is the Treasury's.

The inflation reading the rise normally follows is now out. The ONS inflation bulletin published on 21 October 2026 says the Consumer Prices Index "rose by 3.5% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 3.1% the previous month". The 2026 rise took its percentage from the matching September 2025 reading, and the LGA bulletin described it as being in line with CPI for the year up to that September. That is not a forecast: a 3.5% reading does not guarantee a 3.5% rise, since the Treasury's order decides. The scheme's administrator will confirm your actual figure after the order is made.

Planning how a pension that rises in line with prices fits among other income is the kind of question that depends on the whole picture. Sorting a firefighter pension alongside the State Pension and savings is a job for one conversation, which the request-a-call-back form on this page sets up with an FCA-authorised adviser; the scheme administrator is the one to ask about your pension record. For the wider idea of inflation-linked pensions, see whether final salary pensions increase each year and what a final salary pension is.

Other public service pension increases and your questions

Is the firefighters pension rise linked to CPI or RPI?

CPI. The LGA bulletin links the 2026 rise to the Consumer Prices Index for the year to September 2025, and Local Pensions Partnership's employer guide says, in its 1992 scheme section, that pensions are increased in line with CPI.

Do widows' and children's firefighter pensions rise too?

The September 2008 guide to the 1992 scheme says the rise is paid with immediate effect to pensions for widows, widowers, civil partners and children. For the 2006 and 2015 schemes, the administrator can confirm how it applies to a particular survivor's pension.

Do Scottish firefighters get the same pension increase?

The Scottish Public Pensions Agency describes its firefighters' benefits as index linked. It is the body to ask for the percentage on a Scottish pension, because the Scottish schemes are separate from the English ones.

How do police, NHS and other public pensions compare on the yearly rise?

Each has its own page, since the detail differs by scheme: the police, NHS, armed forces, civil service, teachers' and local government pension increases.

Where do I check what my own pension rose by?

Your scheme administrator's letter or payslip shows it, and if you are not sure who to ask, the scheme's member website suggests starting with your fire and rescue authority. If something still puzzles you, an adviser reached via this page's form can explain it without charge.

Sources

Statutes and orders, read 29 October 2026: SI 2026/256, the 2026 Pensions Increase Order and its Explanatory Note; SI 2025/343; SI 2024/372; SI 2023/338; SI 2022/333; Pensions (Increase) Act 1971, section 3 and section 8; Firefighters' Pension Scheme (England) Order 2006; Firefighters' Pension Scheme (England) Regulations 2014. Local Government Association: FPS Bulletin 102, February 2026, annual update SIs, calculating your 2015 pension and who to contact. Scheme guides: Local Pensions Partnership, Fire Pension Scheme retirements employer guide; guide to the Firefighters' Pension Scheme 1992 (England), September 2008, copy hosted by Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service; Scottish Public Pensions Agency, how your pension works. ONS inflation bulletin for September 2026.