Former prime ministers do not get a £115,000 special ‘pension for life’

We’ve seen a number of claims circulating on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook about what pensions and financial support former prime ministers are entitled to, following the recent general election in which there was a change of government and former prime minister Liz Truss lost her seat in the House of Commons. 

Some posts claim former prime ministers, including Rishi Sunak and Ms Truss, are entitled to a “£115,000 Prime Minister’s pension for life”. Other posts have put this figure at £125,000 or £100,000 a year, while another claims both Mr Sunak and Ms Truss are “both walking away with an £80k pension per year for life”. Another says Ms Truss gets “£115,000 tax free for the rest of her life”. 

It’s not true that all former prime ministers get a £115,000 per year pension, and while we don’t know what the value of Mr Sunak or Ms Truss’ pension will be, there’s no evidence that the figures cited are correct. In fact, there is no longer a specific pension for former prime ministers, and many of the figures quoted appear to refer instead to the Public Duty Costs Allowance. This is not a pension, but an allowance that former prime ministers can access in order to cover expenses incurred through their duties. It was capped at £115,000 per year in 2023/24. 

We’ve written before about misleading claims relating to the payments ministers are entitled to after they leave their roles, as well as claims about MPs’ pay and expenses. False or misleading claims about politicians have the potential to affect people’s opinions of individuals, parties or how they choose to vote.

What is the Public Duty Costs Allowance?

The Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA) is a fund available only to former prime ministers who are still active in public life. It was introduced in 1991, and was established after the resignation of Margaret Thatcher. 

The PDCA helps ex-prime ministers “meet the actual cost of continuing to fulfil public duties”, such as managing an office and the consequential staffing and administration costs, handling correspondence as a former prime minister, and support with visits in this capacity. 

It does this through reimbursing expenses incurred. It is not an advance payment, and former prime ministers and their staff are told they should make receipts and documentation available to bodies such as the National Audit Office if requested. 

Cabinet Office guidance says that the allowance is not paid to support former PMs’ private or parliamentary duties (if the former prime minister is still an MP), or for security. 

The maximum amount a former prime minister can claim in expenses over a year through the PDCA was £115,000 in 2023/24, and it’s remained at that level since 2011. The level is reviewed at the start of a parliament, as well as annually. We’ve not been able to confirm whether the allowance remains capped at £115,000 a year in 2024/25—we’ve asked the Cabinet Office, and will update this article if it responds. 

Accounts published by the Cabinet Office show most former prime ministers claim close to the maximum amount of £115,000 a year. 

In 2022/23, both Sir John Major and Sir Tony Blair claimed back the full amount of £115,000. Theresa May claimed £113,422, while Gordon Brown claimed £114,627 and David (now Lord) Cameron claimed £108,312. Boris Johnson did not make any claims through the PDCA in 2022/23.

Ms Truss also made a claim for expenses through the PDCA in 2022/23, for £23,310. She was able to use the PDCA following her resignation as prime minister in October 2022. 

We don’t yet have information on claims made through the PDCA in 2023/24, or so far in 2024/25. However, Mr Sunak is currently not able to access the PDCA, as he is now the Leader of the Opposition.

We’re written more before about what specific public duties and costs are covered by the PDCA. Former prime ministers can also claim an additional amount to contribute towards their staff pension costs, limited to a maximum of 10% of the PDCA.

We’re not sure exactly where the £125,000 figure that’s been circulating online comes from, but it could be a rounding of the full amount that can be claimed by former prime ministers through the PDCA—£115,000 a year—plus the maximum 10% staff pension costs (which would equate to £126,500 a year). 

What pension do former prime ministers get?

Since the Public Services Pensions Act 2013 was implemented in 2015, there has been no special pension for prime ministers. 

Before then, prime ministers had a separate pension arrangement to most other MPs and ministers. This arrangement entitled the Prime Minister, as well as the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker, to an annual pension that was half the office holder’s final salary on leaving office. 

After the Public Service Pensions Act was passed in 2013 and came into effect after the 2015 general election, this arrangement stopped. Since then, like other ministers, they have automatically been enrolled in the Ministerial Pension Scheme when they became a minister. This is in addition to the pension scheme MPs enter when they are elected to the House of Commons. 

Both schemes provide a pension when someone retires, not when they stop being a minister or stand down as an MP. MPs and ministers can opt out of the schemes if they wish. 

The value of the ministerial pension awarded to former PMs since 2015 will depend on the contributions they’ve made to the scheme, both as Prime Minister and in other ministerial positions they may have held. Former ministers are unable to receive payments from the ministerial pension until they have “ceased to be a Minister and also ceased to be an MP”. While we don’t know how much Mr Sunak or Ms Truss’ pensions are worth, there’s no evidence that any of the figures we’ve seen quoted—such as £115,000, £125,000 or £80,000 a year—are correct.

What other support do former PMs get?

When leaving office, former prime ministers are also entitled to severance pay, as all government ministers are, provided they don’t take up another relevant office within three weeks (or six, if Parliament was dissolved for an election) and are under the age of 65. This payment (which can be refused) is equal to a quarter of the annual salary they were paid before losing their ministerial position. 

This is a one-off payment. According to figures from the Treasury, Ms Truss received £18,660 as a severance payment for her time as prime minister (about a quarter of £75,440).  

However, it appears that Mr Sunak is not currently entitled to this ministerial severance payment, as he is Leader of the Opposition, which the law considers a “relevant office”. The Leader of the Opposition is paid £66,421 a year in addition to their MP salary, currently £91,346 a year. 

As Ms Truss stood for Parliament, but was not re-elected in July 2024, she is also entitled to additional payments. Financial support is available to MPs who lose their seats through a ‘winding up budget’, which meets the cost of closing down constituency offices and “completing outstanding parliamentary functions”, as well as a winding-up payment and a loss of office payment.

According to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the winding-up payment MPs who lose their seat receive is equivalent to four months’ MP salary, while the loss of office payment is equal to twice the recipient’s statutory redundancy entitlement (if they have held office for at least two years continuously before losing their seat).